Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

A new WikiLeaks release of diplomatic cables includes one from the United States Embassy in London to the State Department in Washington, D.C.  The November 13, 2008 transmittal was marked CONFIDENTIAL by Acting Political Counselor Jim Donegon.

The confidential cable summarized an informal meeting of Africa Watchers, a group consisting of diplomatic staff from the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States.  The occasion was an embassy-hosted seminar on China-Africa relations.

Copies of the London cable were sent to the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Council, and the American Institute in Taiwan.

As the Africa Watchers discussed Chinese overtures to Africa there was an interest in better understanding the Chinese government decision-making process.  New Zealand’s relations with China were described including a reference to an obvious stumbling block, Taiwan.

The London cable reported on how New Zealand sidetracked Chinese claims on Taiwan.  New Zealand “has tried to make China’s engagement more constructive by preempting discussions about China-Taiwan relations.”

New Zealand has followed the United States lead on Taiwan recognizing the People’s Republic of China as the legitimate government of China instead of the ROC.  Nor has New Zealand recognized ROC sovereignty over Taiwan.  

The New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade explains:  “New Zealand does not recognize the Government of the Republic of China.  New Zealand’s economic and cultural interests in Taiwan are represented by the New Zealand Commerce and Industry Office and Taiwan’s interests in New Zealand by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Offices in Wellington and Auckland.”

WikiLeaks has a large batch of diplomatic cables from the American Institute in Taiwan but thus far has only released one of them about export controls.  However, once in a while a cable from the U.S. embassy somewhere in the world will mention Taiwan, as did this cable from London.

While New Zealand may preempt discussions about Taiwan with China, the United States avoids them with a longstanding “strategic ambiguity” that keeps Taiwan’s status unresolved.  The U.S. is the “principal occupying Power” over Taiwan under the San Francisco Peace Treaty that ended World War II with Japan.

The United States has allowed the exiled Republic of China to control Taiwan and that has left the island under threat of invasion from the People’s Republic of China.  An arms race across the Taiwan Strait has been good for American weapons manufacturers with the ROC seeking more weapons buys.

Taiwan observers are hoping some of the 3,456 WikiLeaks cables from the American Institute in Taiwan will shed light on the cloudy international status of the island.  Taiwan is barred from membership in the United Nations and the District of Columbia U.S. Court of Appeals has described the plight of Taiwan’s 23 million inhabitants as living in “political purgatory.”