Relief in U.S. over Taiwan election result

“The United States’ attention has been spread thin, and it’s been quite difficult for Taiwan to let the current administration understand that China has been trying harder and harder to squeeze Taiwan’s international participation,” Wu said. “That has been a fundamental strain between the Bush administration and the outgoing administration in Taiwan.”

Meanwhile, a new report is calling for “better, more routine high-level contact” between Taiwan and the United States. Junior U.S. officials, not high-level envoys, carry messages to Taiwan’s president; that “no longer serves U.S. interests and may very well be dangerous,” according to the report by Dan Blumenthal, a former China and Taiwan specialist at the Pentagon, and Randall Schriver, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian affairs in the Bush administration.

“Absent frequent authoritative contact, small crises grow and misunderstandings multiply,” said the report.

Current U.S. guidelines ban Taiwan’s president from visiting Washington; Wu and his colleagues are barred from the State Department and White House and must meet senior U.S. administration officials in restaurants and coffee shops.

White House press secretary Dana Perino told reporters Monday that Bush was pleased with the election. When asked if the United States would welcome a visit by Ma before his inauguration, Perino said, “Let me check on that in terms of scheduling.”

Later, the White House said a Ma visit is “not on the schedule.”

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