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Updated Saturday, December 11, 2010 11:17 pm TWN, CNA

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US governor's Taiwan trip off due to China pressure: report

TAIPEI -- Missouri Governor Jay Nixon acknowledged yesterday that he canceled his trip to Taiwan over concerns that it would impact his state's relations with China, U.S. media reported.

Nixon was scheduled to lead a trade mission from Dec. 10-16 to Taiwan and South Korea. In Taiwan, he was expected to sign a letter of intent under which Taiwanese businesses would commit to purchasing US$600 million of Missouri products, including corn and soybeans, according to a Dec. 1 statement from Nixon's office.

Nixon was also scheduled to meet President Ma Ying-jeou and Foreign Minister Timothy C.T. Yang during his planned stay, the statement said.

The governor was cited by an AP report as saying Thursday U.S. time that the trip was canceled because it could affect Missouri's efforts to make Lambert-St. Louis International Airport a trade hub for Chinese goods.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Friday that Nixon was forced to cancel the mission last week due to pressure from the Midwest China Hub Commission and the Chinese consulate.

Nixon described his dilemma at a Thursday press conference.

“Leading a delegation of this magnitude, a foreign mission with a number of factors coming into play ... as we continue to assess those factors, I just determined it wasn't an optimal time to do that,” Nixon said, according to a St. Louis Public Radio transcript.

The governor said he still planned to reschedule the visit and did not believe that the cancellation had “killed the deal.”

Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spokesman James Chang told the Central News Agency on Friday that the governor's office expressed gratitude to Taiwan for its assistance in arranging the visit and said the governor could not make the trip due to “other business.”

According to Chang, the governor's office did not mention anything about China in notifying Taiwan that the trip had been canceled. Chang said the MOFA is looking into the matter and has been trying to gather more information.

Nixon's office said previously that Taiwanese businesses had expressed an interest in purchasing an average of US$120 million in Missouri goods per year over the next five years.

Missouri exports to Taiwan totaled US$69.1 million in 2009, and initial projections through the third quarter of 2010 indicated an increase of about 28 percent this year.

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