The US State Deparmtent and the KMT Fail Again

Friday August 01, by Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

The farcical dance goes on, proving once again how difficult life is for the US State Department and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to cover up their ineptitude and kowtowing to China. Without Chen Shui-bian to blame, they are at sixes and sevens in trying to explain why there has been no activity on arms sales to Taiwan. The US State Department has said it wants to sell arms to Taiwan; the KMT says that they want to buy arms, so why is there no action? The dance continues with no results. Where is the problem?

The truth is, that Chen Shui-bian was never the problem and the rest of the world is beginning to catch on to what close observers knew all along; the problem has always been China and the fact that the US State Department and the KMT for different reasons are afraid to offend the bully.

Taiwan's Legislative Speaker, Wang Jin-pyng, has just returned to Taiwan from Washington DC. He had gone there to talk up the arms sales, but instead he got the run around and returned empty handed. Again we hear the lame excuses. Dennis Wilder, the US National Security Council's senior director for Asian affairs gives his usual gobbledygook. "I think there has been a misunderstanding in the press that somehow we have put this relationship on hold," he states. Hello, nothing has happened in years; if nothing has happened, what is to be misunderstood? Isn't that the same as being on hold or worse? Wilder goes on, "We continue to have robust relations with the Taiwan military. We continue to assist them with their self-defense needs." Of course, now we see. Though nothing has happened the US is still there continuing to assist Taiwan. Robust relations cover a multitude of sins. Isn't it grand to have such allies and friends?