US embassy cable - 05TAIPEI246

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TAIPEI 000246 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PASS AIT/W 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/20/2015 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, TW 
SUBJECT: TECRO HQS GETTING DOWNSIZED 
 
Classified By: AIT Director Douglas Paal; Reasons: 1.4 (B/D) 
 
1. (C) Summary.  Taiwan's Legislative Yuan (LY) has slashed 
Taipei's Coordination Council for North American Affairs 
TECRO Headquarters (HQS) budget and approved a plan to 
reassign almost all TECRO personnel and responsibilities to 
other government ministries.  Taiwan officials assert that 
the move is designed to streamline interaction between AIT 
and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and does not 
represent a change in policy.  KMT LY Foreign Affairs 
Committee member John Chang, a former Foreign Minister and 
TECRO HQS Secretary General, was largely responsible for the 
plan.  The LY has instructed MOFA's personnel office to come 
up with a plan within three months to redistribute TECRO 
responsibilities to other offices.  The timing of TECRO's 
downsizing is unfortunate, given the organization's 
increasingly helpful role in smoothing the way for 
construction of AIT's new facility.  While MOFA asserts that 
it did not support gutting TECRO, Taiwan has long wanted to 
reduce or eliminate both TECRO and AIT to strengthen the 
appearance of direct government-to-government ties between 
Taiwan and the U.S.  End summary. 
 
Streamlining AIT-MOFA Interaction 
--------------------------------- 
 
2. (C) The LY's reorganization plan for the Coordination 
Council for North American Affairs, the home office for 
U.S.-based TECRO missions, is designed to allow AIT directly 
to interact with MOFA and other government offices.  Former 
TECRO Secretary General, John Chen, told AIT that the 
brain-child behind the move is LY member John Chang, a former 
Foreign Minister and Secretary General of TECRO.  Chang told 
AIT that TECRO cannot give the impression that it functions 
as an office that determines Taipei's policy with the U.S. 
Chang said that MOFA should be the direct interlocutor with 
AIT on policy issues.  Chang also said he is tired of TECRO 
being used as a "political dumping ground" for political 
appointees, such as the current chair Lin Fang-mei.  Former 
Secretary General Chen opined that Chang believes TECRO's 
 
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duties are redundant and add an extra layer of process to 
interaction between AIT and MOFA.  Democratic Progressive 
Party (DPP) LY Foreign Affairs Committee Member Bi-khim Hsiao 
told AIT separately that she supported Chang's plan.  Hsiao 
said that from the LY's perspective, TECRO's only 
bureaucratic role appears to be forwarding Taipei's visa 
applications to AIT. 
 
3. (C) Chen maintained that the TECRO plan does not represent 
a change in policy and that it is just an effort to 
streamline Taiwan's bureaucracy and cut costs.  Chen added 
that USD 21,000 has already been cut from the TECRO HQS 
approximately USD 140,000 operating budget (Note: this figure 
is TECRO's basic operating budget and does not include 
salaries or administrative expenses.  End note).  The LY also 
plans to eventually reduce the number of officers from 12 to 
just "two or three." According to Chen, the LY wanted to 
eliminate TECRO completely, but Chen said that MOFA pushed 
back strongly to keep at least TECRO's shell in existence. 
Chen told AIT that the LY has mandated that within three 
months MOFA's personnel office must submit a plan detailing 
how TECRO will be reorganized and its duties partitioned to 
other government offices.  Chen said that MOFA could provide 
funding to TECRO through other accounts if it was needed and 
"if we continue to exist." 
 
Process Will Be Gradual 
----------------------- 
 
4. (C) TECRO officials maintain the process of down-sizing of 
TECRO will be conducted gradually to ensure a smooth 
transition.  Chen said he wanted to assure AIT that Taiwan 
places great value on the relationship with Washington and 
that he was certain nothing would be done that would 
negatively impact AIT through this process.  The aim, he 
said, "is to improve our relationship by making interaction 
easier." However, Chen told AIT that there could be an issue 
with how the work is assumed by other offices.  Chen added 
that this will be addressed in the upcoming MOFA study.  He 
privately admitted that he is not surprised by Chang's move 
because there has been talk of doing this for years.  Chen 
added that he thinks that this will be beneficial for AIT 
because it really will improve direct interaction between AIT 
and MOFA. 
Comment: Fast Track to Long Term Goal 
------------------------------------- 
 
5. (C) While TECRO may call it gradual, the organization 
appears to be fast disintegrating.  Because of a political 
fight, its chair Lin has been effectively marginalized. 
Former Secretary General Chen on January 8 assumed his duties 
as Director General of MOFA's International Organizations 
Department and APEC Senior Official for Taiwan.  TECRO Deputy 
Secretary General Jacqueline Liu has just been assigned to 
 
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Taiwan's office in Manila.  Recently named TECRO Deputy 
Secretary General Raymond Mou is still in his previous job in 
 
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the Foreign Minister's office and said he does not plan to 
move anytime soon. 
 
6. (C) There may well be legitimate bureaucratic and 
financial reasons to downsize TECRO HQS.  However, the 
elimination of TECRO HQS has also been seen as a key step 
towards "normalizing" the U.S.-Taiwan relationship by 
successive governments in Taipei.  Moreover, the timing of 
TECRO's downsizing is unfortunate, given the organization's 
increasingly helpful role in smoothing the way for 
construction of AIT's new office building (NOB).  Former 
TECRO Secretary General Chen seemed to work overtime to 
complete the remaining work on property leases before he 
transferred to MOFA's International Organizations Department 
on January 8.  Whether his successor has the personal and 
bureaucratic standing to advance the NOB project as 
successfully as Chen after the TECRO reorganization is very 
much an open question. 
 
7. (C) In any case we will need to watch TECRO's fate closely 
to preserve the current, symbolically significant structure 
for our "unofficial" interaction with Taiwan, even as it 
shrinks to the size of a figleaf. 
PAAL