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U.S., Taiwan talks ongoing at Vinoy
By THOMAS C. TOBIN ST. PETERSBURG -- A group of big-league players is in town and they couldn't have less to do with spring training. Their game: a dicey competition for billions of dollars and for military might being played in the arena of international affairs. Welcome to the United States-Taiwan Defense Summit at the Renaissance Vinoy Resort, a grouping of some 150 men and women in dark suits who won't say what's going on when, clearly, something is. "It surely isn't the typical corporate event that we have here throughout the year," said Vinoy general manager Russell Bond. "There is a sense of a greater importance." For starters, the star attendee is Taiwan defense minister Tang Yiau-Ming, who was expected to meet Monday with U.S. officials, business leaders and policy makers behind closed doors at the salmon-colored resort on St. Petersburg's waterfront. The subject reportedly was the future of American arms sales to Taiwan, an island nation of 21-million people, also known as the Republic of China. Other participants include Paul Wolfowitz, the No. 2 official at the Department of Defense, and Frank C. Carlucci, who was Ronald Reagan's defense secretary. Now chairman of the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council, which convened the three-day summit, Carlucci declined to be interviewed Monday as he headed to lunch. Several other participants also declined to speak about the event, which is closed to the media. The summit is sponsored by a number of U.S. military contractors, including Boeing, General Dynamics, Honeywell and Lockheed Martin, all of which sent executives to participate. Tang's visit does not please the other China -- the People's Republic of China -- also known as "communist China" or "mainland China," which has 1.3-billion people and is no friend to Taiwan. The two countries have been ruled separately since 1949 when Chinese Nationalists retreated to Taiwan after losing a civil war on the mainland to Mao Tse-tung's communists. The bigger China recently played host to President Bush as he sought the country's help in the war on terrorism. "We demand that the United States . . . correct their wrong decisions and stop these official and military exchanges," a foreign minister from the People's Republic of China said angrily last week. "The Chinese are almost certainly unsettled by this," said Robert Hathaway, director of the Asia Program for the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Tang's visit, he said, is the first since 1979 that a top Taiwanese official has visited U.S. soil for a high-level meeting. That was the year the United States ended its official relationship with Taiwan to pursue better relations with China, an economic and military colossus of ever-growing importance on the world stage. Meanwhile, the United States retained an "unofficial" relationship with Taiwan, selling it arms and developing a vibrant trading partnership. Mainland China will view Tang's visit to St. Petersburg as one of a string of recent events in which the United States and Taiwan have "pushed the envelope," he said. "Insofar as this meeting looks forward to new arms sales, it will be seen as another unwelcome development in China." -- Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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Headlines From the Times local news desks Mary Jo Melone |
