July 4, 2006
United States
House of Representatives (Senate)
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Honorable U.S. House Representative (or Senator):
On behalf of the Chinese-American community in the Greater Washington area,
we are writing this letter to express our concerns about the current political
crisis in Taiwan. As Chinese-Americans, we have serious concerns that Chen
Shui-bian may attempt to divert attention to save his own skin by taking some
highly irresponsible actions that will destabilize the status quo that the
United States Government has tried so hard to maintain across the Taiwan
Strait. We should never allow Chen Shui-bian to disrupt the peace across the
Taiwan Strait or damage our long term relations with China.
As you know, Chen Shui-bian is facing pressure to step down after a series of
major corruption scandals allegedly involving his wife Wu Shu-chen, his
son-in-law Chao Chien-ming and Chao's parents, as well as some of Chen's top
aides. Chen's son-in-law, Chao Chien-ming, has been detained for charges
involving insider trading. It has been alleged that Wu Shu-chen accepted a
large amount of gift vouchers from the Sogo department store and that Chao and
his parents used privileged information to make windfall profits on shares in
a state-owned property development company. There are also allegations that
both Chao and Chen's wife have accepted bribes and may have profited from
selling public offices. Furthermore, there have also been corruption charges
against several of Chen's top aides and some of them have already been forced
to resign. A top "cabinet official" resigned after being arrested on charges
of illegally profiting from an engineering contract, and a general working in
Chen乫s office is under investigation for allegations involving insider
trading. On Tuesday June 27, 2006, Taiwan's legislature has held a referendum
to recall the island's leader and failed as expected because of less than
two-thirds majority needed to pass the motion. However, the corruption
scandals in Taiwan appear to be snowballing and the Chen Shui-bian has lost
the confidence of the people in Taiwan.
When Chen Shui-bian was "re-elected" on March 20, 2004, the "election" was
viewed as fraudulent by at least half of the people in Taiwan. Many people
believed that Chen staged the March 19, 2004 "assassination attempt" for his
own life to gain sympathy votes. After the so-called "election", there were
large demonstrations in Taiwan and many openly questioned the legitimacy of
the Chen regime. To divert attention from these serious charges, Chen Shui-
bian chose to play his Taiwan "independence" card by taking a number of
actions that were solely aimed to provoke China. Earlier this year, over the
strong objection of the U.S. Government, Chen Shui-bian moved a step closer to
formal "independence" by signing a highly controversial order to abolish the
National Unification Council. This action was highly provocative and was
unnecessarily even from Taiwan's standpoint. Instead of addressing Taiwan's
serious economic and social problems, Chen Shui-bian time and again chose to
divert attention by taking actions to provoke China and thus gambling Taiwan's
security for his own interest.
In May of this year, Chen Shui-bian made another visit to Central America.
The reason that he has visited Central America so many times over the past
six years was to stop-over in major U.S. cities to promote Taiwan
"independence". When the U.S. Government agreed to allow him to stop-over in
Alaska, Chen Shui-bian was unhappy and rejected this arrangement.
Consequently, he was in the air for some 37 hours because most governments in
the world refused to allow him to stop-over. On his way back to Taiwan
following his visit to Central America, he visited Tripoli, the capital of
Libya -- a country that is not exactly a friend of the United States. Was
Chen Shui-bian trying to send a message to the U. S. Government that he was
unhappy about the stop-over arrangement in Alaska, or was he attempting to
become an ally of Mr. Qaddafi?
We believe that the current situation in Taiwan is highly unstable. The Chen
Shui-bian regime is facing major corruption charges as well as serious
economic and social problems. The corruption scandals have angered most of
the people in Taiwan, including many of Chen's own supporters. Chen Shui-
bian is trying hard to survive politically. Judging from Chen's past record
as a trouble maker, we are concerned that he will become so desperate to save
his own skin that he will once again choose to divert attention by taking
some highly irresponsible and provocative actions that may seriously threaten
the peace across the Taiwan Strait. We should never allow Chen Shui-bian to
undermine U.S.-China relations or to drag our country into any unnecessary
military conflicts in Asia. We sincerely urge you to closely monitor the
political turmoil in Taiwan and send strong messages to Chen Shui-bian
whenever necessary that the United States will not tolerate any of his
irresponsible and provocative actions that may threaten the peace in
Southeast Asia.
In closing, we would like to thank you for your consideration of our position
on this important matter.
Respectfully,
National Association for China's Peaceful Unification
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