King grilled on US,
sexual orientation
TONGUE LASHING: Lawmakers interrogated the US
representative on everything from his knowldege of key players in Washington to
his sexual orientation
By Shih Hsiu-chuan and Chris Wang / Staff reporters
Taiwan Solidarity Union
Legislator Hsu Chun-hsin holds up a picture of a US official yesterday and asks
Representative to the US King Pu-tsung to identify him.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Representative to the US King
Pu-tsung yesterday speaks at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan¡¦s Foreign Affairs
and National Defense Committee in Taipei.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
In his first appearance at the
legislature¡¦s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee yesterday,
Representative to the US King Pu-tsung (ª÷·ÁÁo) was confronted by lawmakers who
seemed more interested in his sexual orientation than on the future of US-Taiwan
relations, which many saw as a missed opportunity to discuss the state of
relations with the nation¡¦s main ally.
King, who assumed his duties in Washington on Dec. 1, was presenting a report on
the prospects for US-Taiwan relations.
At the meeting, questions posed to King, a long-term right-hand man of President
Ma Ying-jeou (°¨^¤E), were more focused on his role in shaping the Ma
administration¡¦s policies and his partisan character than on US-Taiwan
relations.
King dodged most of the questions unrelated to his report, saying he always
played whatever role he was asked to play, but refused to answer questions
regarding the nature of his relationship with Ma.
In response to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Liao Cheng-ching (¹ù¥¿¤«)
asking him about his sexual orientation to ¡§give you [King] a chance to clarify
the matter,¡¨ King said he respected everyone no matter their sexual orientation,
but said: ¡§I am not [gay],¡¨ and that Ma and he were not in a relationship.
King said it was ¡§unfair¡¨ that people have claimed that his political progress
has been spurred along through sexual relationships, adding that the insinuation
was also insulting to homosexuals.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Pasuya Yao («À¤å´¼) said he cared
less about King¡¦s relationship with Ma and more about Ma¡¦s sexual orientation,
asking King to answer him, to which King replied: ¡§It¡¦s not a question I should
answer.¡¨
King has been dubbed as a ¡§behind-the-scenes fixer¡¨ and ¡§underground president¡¨
by some DPP lawmakers who demand that King be held responsible for the ¡§King and
Ma system,¡¨ a term first coined by People First Party Chairman James Soong (§º·¡·ì)
to refer to what he believes is the strong influence King exerts over Ma.
DPP Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (½²·×·ã) demanded that King apologize for his
¡§failure¡¨ to live up to promises in 2008 that he would not take any position in
the Ma administration, for the decline in Taiwanese exports to China following
the signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, and for the poor
governance of the ¡§King and Ma system.¡¨
The ¡§King and Ma system¡¨ has ruined normal government functions, DPP Legislator
Ker Chien-ming (¬_«Ø»Ê) said.
¡§Even a three-year-old child knows you play an important role in the
administration ... you should stop avoiding questions,¡¨ Ker said.
Ker said that as Ma¡¦s envoy in Washington, King had the important role of
communicating with the US as the Ma administration prepares to embark on
critical political talks with China on a peace accord.
When asked whether Taiwan would sign such a pact and build a mechanism to ensure
military mutual trust, King said that he is not in a position to address these
issues, which he said fall under the mandate of the Mainland Affairs Council.
DPP Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (¿½¬üµ^) raised the issues of the US¡¦ ¡§pivot to Asia¡¨
and territorial disputes in the South China Sea and demanded that King answer
her questions in English because she ¡§wanted to know how King explained the
nation¡¦s positions on these issues to the US.¡¨
King insisted in answering in Mandarin because ¡§not everyone in the room
understands English.¡¨
King said US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
Kurt Campbell was likely to leave his position.
Possible candidates to succeed Campbell are Frank Jannuzi, the deputy executive
director of Amnesty International USA; Michael Schiffer, former US deputy
assistant secretary of defense for East Asia; and Richard Bush, a senior fellow
at the Brookings Institution and director of its Center for Northeast Asian
Policy Studies, King said.
In response to concerns raised by lawmakers that US Senator John Kerry, who has
been nominated to succeed US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, favors a
China-friendly policy, King said he believed that Kerry would continue to
support Taiwan as long it sticks to its current cross-strait policy.
Although Kerry has more experience in dealing with China than Taiwan, he has
been consistent in basing his Taiwan policy on the three communiques signed by
the US and Taiwan in 1972 and the US¡¦ Taiwan Relations Act and supporting the
provision of defensive weapons to Taiwan, King said.
King said US Special Representative for Global Intergovernmental affairs Rita
Lewis is scheduled to visit to Taiwan early next year as part of his office¡¦s
efforts to promote visits by senior US officials.
At a press conference yesterday, Joseph Wu (§d°xÀè), executive director of the
DPP¡¦s Policy Research Committee, said King¡¦s report had ¡§missed the point¡¨ and
left several critical issues unanswered, such as Taiwan¡¦s handling of the
Diaoyutai Islands (³¨³½¥x) dispute.
King did not present his vision on Taiwan-US relations and failed to address US
concerns about Taiwan¡¦s seemingly pro-China stance as well as the lack of
progress on bilateral trade and security ties, said Wu, who has also served as
an envoy to Washington.
While King and Ma have reiterated that Taiwan-US relations are ¡§the best in
three decades,¡¨ recent developments do not support their claim, Wu said.
The US is concerned about the lack of transparency in cross-strait negotiations
and lack of communication between Taipei and Washington on that subject, Wu
said.
Washington has also expressed concern through various channels about Taiwan¡¦s
position in disputes in the East China and South China Seas that Taipei appears
to ¡§have chosen to cooperate with China in challenging Japan and the US-Japan
security alliance,¡¨ Wu said, adding that Taiwan is standing on the opposite side
of the US in the Asia-Pacific strategic landscape.
Ma had also failed to achieve his pledge to spend at least 3 percent of GDP on
the military and has yet to submit new arms procurement proposals, he said.
On trade ties, King failed to point out that declining bilateral trade in recent
years was due to Taiwan¡¦s closer economic integration with China, Wu said.
Taiwan¡¦s trade with the US accounted for 11.54 percent of its total trade volume
in 2008, but only accounted for 10.04 percent this year, he said, adding that US
imports from Taiwan fell from 11.28 percent of the total import volume in 2008
to 8.75 percent this year.
¡§Bilateral trade relations have been idle in the past three years, if you take
the suspension of the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement negotiations
since 2009 into consideration,¡¨ Wu said.
Ker said King ¡§would be someone that the National Security Council and the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs would have problems managing,¡¨ given his close ties
with Ma and his invisible power as ¡§the de facto president who makes most of the
decisions.¡¨
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