US appoints AIT director Stanton
　

By William Lowther
STAFF REPORTER , WASHINGTON
Friday, Jul 03, 2009, Page 1

William Stanton, former deputy chief of mission to the US embassy in Seoul, South Korea, has been appointed new director of the Taipei office of the American Institute in Taiwan.

Stanton is one of the most controversial figures ever to get the job and his appointment may lead to new legislation being introduced in Congress demanding that all future candidates for AIT director go through a Senate confirmation like ambassadors do.

The State Department is authorized under the Taiwan Relations Act to make the appointment without oversight.

Stanton’s name first surfaced months ago at the top of the list of potential candidates to take over from outgoing AIT Director Stephen Young, who is retiring.

Congressional sources said that complaints had been made against Stanton when he was a senior official at the Beijing embassy for being overly pro-Chinese, saying that he blocked reports that reflected badly on China from being sent to Washington.

In April, Stanton was alleged to have made highly insensitive comments about two US journalists — Taiwanese-American Laura Ling (凌志美) and Korean-American Euna Lee — who were arrested by North Korean authorities on charges they illegally entered the country.

A memorandum that circulated around the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee said Stanton told a group of young congressional staff members visiting the embassy in Seoul that the women were “stupid” and that their case was “distracting from bigger issues.”

Last month, both women were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor and US President Barack Obama has become personally involved in trying to win their freedom.

Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has since said that she favors Senate confirmation for the position of director of the American Institute in Taiwan and is expected to introduce such legislation in the near future. She was not available for comment on Wednesday.

But in a clear reference to Stanton she said last month: “Not only has there been controversy about certain past directors, but my understanding is that the current leading candidate for that position made insensitive remarks about our two US citizens in North Korea sentenced only yesterday to years in the North Korean gulag, referring to them as ‘stupid.’ Is this the kind of representation we want in such a critical posting as Taipei?”

Following Ros-Lehtinen’s remarks, the Taipei Times was told that Stanton was no longer at the top of the list to be the new director and it seems that a final decision was not made until the last minute.

As recently as last Friday, it was reported that Young had very strongly indicated that no final decision had yet been made on his replacement.

The Central News Agency reported that Young said the authorities were “very close” to picking his successor and that when a decision was made it would be announced from Washington.

The formal announcement of Stanton’s appointment said he would take over in Taipei next month.

Born in New Jersey, Stanton was educated at Fordham University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Prior to his job in Seoul, he served both as charge d’affaires ad interim and as deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in Canberra, Australia.

Stanton is married to Foreign Service Officer Karen Clark Stanton and they have two daughters.

Commenting on Stanton’s appointment yesterday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it welcomed the appointment and it believed the new AIT director would fully reflect the Obama administration’s support for President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) policies.
　

N Korea launches four short-range missiles off coast
　

BOLSTER DEFENSE: A South Korean defense ministry spokesman said the missiles appeared to be ground-to-ship missiles, which have a 140km range

AFP, SEOUL
Friday, Jul 03, 2009, Page 1

North Korea yesterday fired four short-range missile off its east coast, South Korean military officials said.

The first three were launched between 5:20pm and 7:50pm, with the first two fired from a base near the eastern port of Wonsan and the third from Sinsang-ri, the defense ministry said. The fourth was fired at 9:20pm.

The hardline communist state has responded defiantly to UN condemnation of its long-range rocket launch on April 5 and its May 25 nuclear test, vowing to bolster its defenses.

“They appear to be ground-to-ship missiles, which were launched into the East Sea [Sea of Japan],” a ministry spokesman said speaking of the first two launches. “We have no detailed information now, but there have been preparations for missile launches in the region.”

Yonhap news agency said the third one was also a ground-to-ship missile.

The North issued a fresh warning to Japan on Wednesday to stay clear of some coastal areas during military exercises until July 11.

According to Japan’s Coast Guard, Pyongyang issued navigation bans for 10 areas in the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea, citing “military gunfire and bombardment training.”

South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo newspaper, quoting an intelligence source, said the North in the coming days was likely to fire a series of short-range missiles.

Apart from ground-to-ship weapons with a range of 140km, it said these would likely include Scud-B missiles with a range of 340km.

US ties don’t hurt cross-strait detente: Young
　

By Jenny W. hsu
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Jul 03, 2009, Page 3
　

A strong US-Taiwan relationship need not compete with the recently warming links between Taiwan and China, but can rather complement the process by providing Taiwan with the confidence to explore better relations with Beijing, outgoing American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Stephen Young said yesterday at a US national day reception in Taipei.

Young quoted former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), saying: “It doesn’t matter where you come from, so long as you love Taiwan, you are a new Taiwanese.”

Young said by definition he considers himself a “New Taiwanese Man” and he lauded the “civility” and “kindness” of Taiwanese that he has experienced during his years in Taiwan.

“I think of Taiwan’s further maturation as a democracy is best exemplified by the free and fair election held last year. The verdict of which was calmly accepted by all the major political parties,” he said, adding US-Taiwan ties in all realms will deepen in the future.

His replacement William Stanton is an experienced diplomat and “accomplished China hand,” Young said, adding that he was confident that he was leaving Taipei and the AIT in “very capable hands.”

Young spent part of his childhood in Taiwan and later returned to study Chinese as part of the US Foreign Service program.

As a diplomat, he has been stationed in Taiwan three times. An avid climber and cyclist, Young has traveled extensively around the country and said the beauty of the island was one of the things his family would miss about Taiwan.

In his address to the reception, Premier Liu Chao-hsiuan (劉兆玄) accidentally made the US 2,000 years older by congratulating Washington on its “2,333rd” birthday.

Young was scheduled to leave Taiwan today. Stanton, now the deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in Seoul, is scheduled to arrive next month.

Young will leave his post after failing to convince Taiwan to lift the ban on US bone-in beef from cattle older than 30 months of age, which he has worked hard for during his three-year tenure as AIT director. One of his legacies will be the mountainside plot in Neihu, which will be AIT’s future home.

Taiwan’s soul may be lost

An extremely important meeting of the Kaohsiung City Council’s Disciplinary Committee was scheduled to convene on Monday, April 20, at 3pm to discuss the case of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Shao-ting (黃紹庭) who, like his nefarious and now infamous cohort former KMT legislator Diane Lee (李慶安), is alleged to possess dual citizenship — a felonious offense under Taiwan’s own Nationality Act (國籍法).

But to my great chagrin, and to the chagrin of many others, the meeting scheduled for April 20 had to be canceled when only two of the seven members on the Disciplinary Committee bothered to show up. More than two-thirds of the members boycotted the meeting, thus forcing its cancelation.

In my view, this constitutes a gross dereliction of duty. The meeting scheduled for April 20 was an extremely important one, the first meeting of its kind to have been scheduled in nearly a quarter of a century.

I can only wonder if by any chance the five members who failed to show up were KMT members, as are Lee and Huang.

The Taipei Times reported that the meeting of Kaohsiung City’s Disciplinary Committee hearing Huang’s case would have to be rescheduled for a later date (“Kaohsiung to reschedule meeting on citizenship row,” April 28, page 3).

Lamentably, no specific or precise date was given, only that it would hopefully be some time “later.”

More than two months have passed, but astonishingly enough, no one on this Disciplinary Committee has been able to reschedule a suitable date.

I find this snail’s pace all the more astounding when contrasted with the vigor and ardor exemplified by the opponents of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). Chen is incarcerated in a cell without even the benefit of a proper mattress.

His daughter is being tormented and humiliated to the point where her psychological welfare may be at risk. And now even her six-year-old son is the victim of an organized hate campaign. It seems that some people will not be satisfied until Chen and his entire family are destroyed.

Meanwhile, Lee and Huang act with impunity and go their merry way, knowing that their power, wealth and privileged status will protect them.

My advice to Taiwan is that the nation pay attention to its soul, because it in danger of being lost.

MICHAEL SCANLON
Connecticut, USA