Brad Glosserman's Sept. 13 article, "Lashing out at U.S. won't help Taiwan" -- about the fallout between the United States and Taiwan over a planned referendum on U.N. entry -- misses some key points. The U.S. claims that it opposes any change in the status quo across the Taiwan Strait, yet it repeatedly lets China change the status quo without any real response. China's antisecession law, passed in 2005, was met with a mere whimper from the U.S. State Department that it was "unhelpful," yet it has reacted all out of proportion to a democratically proposed referendum in Taiwan. These kinds of double standards are often ignored by American commentators.
For sure there is a need for Taiwan to better brief the U.S. about what it does on sensitive matters, but this shortcoming is at least partly the fault of the U.S. The State Department has refused to lift the ban on direct, high-level official contact between American and Taiwanese officials. Without such contact, it is very difficult for the Taiwanese government to help the U.S. understand the real motivation behind what it does. For the most part, America gets its news from the Opposition KMT-dominated media in Taiwan, which reports everything the government does as "dangerous" or "politically motivated."
If the U.S. really wants to be able to avoid such problems with Taiwan, it must immediately remove the restraints on direct ties and hold regular conferences and meetings with the Taiwanese government. If it does not, then no one in Taiwan will take its calls for "dialogue" seriously.
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