Chen to meet U.S. Congress members

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, MAY 15. In approving a transit visa for the President of Taiwan, the Bush administration has made it known that there is nothing in the visit that should be troublesome to China. Mr. Chen Shui-bian is transiting the United States on his trip to Latin America. In a technical sense, Washington is calling it as a transit without a visa.

``We will try to reassure the authorities in Beijing that there is nothing in the President's transit that they should find disturbing or in any way modifying or changing or casting any doubt on the policy that exists between us and (China)'', the Secretary of State, Gen. Colin Powell has said.

At the same time, the administration is also saying that Mr. Chen will be encouraged to meet members of the Congress when he visits the country this month. This would appear to be a break from the past where such meetings were dissuaded.

``We do believe that private meetings between members of Congress and foreign leaders advance our national interests, so he may have meetings with members of Congress... We assume that some of those will take place'', said the State Department spokesman, Mr. Richard Boucher.

The last time Mr. Chen visited the U.S. was in August 2000 when he spent a few hours confined to his hotel in Los Angeles. The Clinton administration even prevented Mr. Chen from attending a reception sponsored by law-makers. This time his visit to New York and Houston will be markedly different.

Mr. Chen who will be visiting El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay and Honduras, will even have a meeting with the Mayor of New York, Mr. Rudolph Giuliani, according to the Taiwanese media. And on his way back , he will reportedly spend a day in Houston and plans to attend a baseball game.

The U.S. and China ended up in a major shouting match over the visit in 1995 of Mr. Lee Teng-hui, former President of Taiwan, who went to Cornell University. This time Mr. Chen's visit is taking place at a time when Beijing and Washington have been involved in a standoff over the American surveillance plane and the collision over the South China Sea on April 1. The State Department is confident that the row over plane will be resolved in the next few days.

Mr. Chen's visit is not the only thing that is of interest to law-makers here. The spiritual leader of Tibet, the Dalai Lama, is already in the U.S. and is visiting a number of cities. He will be coming to Washington D.C. next week where he has a number of appointments including at the White House. Senior law-makers from the Republican and Democratic parties associate themselves with Taiwan and Tibet and simply could not be bothered that Beijing takes offence to these visits and meetings.

At a time when the U.S.-China relations are at a difficult phase, a study sponsored by the Pentagon is apparently suggesting that Washington shifts its Asian military focus closer to Taiwan. The Rand Study is making the point that in view of the potential for armed conflict between Taiwan and China, the U.S. should come up with new arrangements in South East Asia - perhaps closer to the Philippines - even while maintaining the traditional ties with Japan and South Korea.

China opposes visit

AFP reports from Beijing:

China today said it strongly opposed the Mr. Chen's visit and criticised Washington for granting him a visa.

``China strongly opposes any country, including of course the United States, allowing permission for Chen Shui-bian to visit under any name or style of visit,'' said a Foreign Ministry spokesman.

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