Taipei, Aug. 9 (CNA) Taiwan president should be allowed to make transit stops in the United States and the transit issue should not be linked to other issues, a former U.S. government official said in Taipei Thursday.
"Taiwan is a friendly government and a democracy, its leadership should be received with respect and dignity. My personal opinion would be that Taiwan's president should be allowed to be in the U.S. for transit and should be received with all the respect he is due, " said Randall Schriver, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs.
However, Schriver admitted that there is a tendency in Washington, D.C. to use the transit issue as leverage in dealing with Taiwan-U.S. relations, adding that "it's not healthy. But it does exist."
Schriver described Taiwan-U.S. relations has more of a "troubleshooting" relationship and encouraged the U.S. government to show more support for Taiwan's democracy even though both sides have disagreed with each other on some issues.
Acknowledging that there is frustration in Taiwan over the U.S. attitude and responses to Taiwan's U.N. referendum plan and transit issues, among others, Schriver said the U.S. should not be only critical of Taiwan.
However, as a former U.S. official, Schriver said he can understand the difficulties in managing trilateral relations among the United States, China and Taiwan, as it requires "great attention and complexity of communication." Most of the attention of senior U.S. officials has been shifted to the Middle East and the war of terror in recent years, he pointed out.
To some extent, the worst case scenario of Taiwan-U.S. relations will be that either inattention or lack of interest among U.S. officials on the Taiwan issue will make the U.S. unable or unwilling to support democracy in Taiwan, he said.
In terms of the U.N. referendum, Schriver said the U.S. government opposes the content of the referendum rather than the referendum itself. The basic thinking of the U.S. is that the referendum is unnecessary because "in the U.S., a topic that is so popular and has the support of over 70 percent of the people does not go to referendum."
One of the keys, Schriver pointed out, will be how Taiwan's newly elected president will deal with the result of the referendum, since it will be held on the same day as the presidential election.
Schriver works for Armitage International, a leading bipartisan study group that plans to publish a report on Taiwan-U.S. relations in early 2008 to provide references for the next U.S. administration.