US embassy cable - 05TAIPEI1706

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TAIPEI 001706 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PASS AIT/W AND USTR 
STATE FOR EAP/RSP/TC, EAP/EP, EB/IFD/OIA AND NP/ECC/MCCELLAN 
STATE FOR INR/EC/NKWG 
USTR FOR SCOTT KI 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/09/2025 
TAGS: ETTC, PARM, PINR, PREL, PTER, TW 
SUBJECT: TAIWAN RESPONSE TO EXPORT CONTROL DEMARCHE 
 
REF: STATE 60730 
 
Classified By: AIT ACTING DIRECTOR DAVID J. KEEGAN, REASON 1.5 B/D 
 
1.  (C) Summary: AIT/T Acting Director Keegan delivered 
reftel demarche to Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Chen and 
to Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Mei-yueh in separate 
meetings on April 7.  Both Ministers expressed Taiwan's 
strong commitment to strengthen Taiwan's export controls. 
Minister Mark Chen said he would personally relay the 
non-paper and points directly to President Chen Shui-bian 
during their flight to Rome that afternoon.  End summary. 
 
Shared Values 
------------------ 
 
2. (C) Foreign Minister Mark Chen expressed his appreciation 
for U.S. efforts to advance democracy and human rights, 
noting that Taiwan and the United States shared these 
values.  ADIR Keegan noted the seriousness of the export 
control issue to the U.S. Government, that Dr. David Asher 
had visited Taiwan three times in the past two years to 
convey the importance of this issue, that the AIT Director 
had raised the issue with the Taiwan Premier and President, 
and that AIT has held numerous meetings with the National 
Security Council (NSC), National Security Bureau (NSB), 
Bureau of Foreign Trade.  (BOFT), and other agencies in 
which we have urged a strengthening of Taiwan's export 
control system. 
 
Your Concerns Are Our Concerns 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
3.  (C) Minister Chen responded that as a result of his time 
as a Chair of the Legislative Yuan Science and Technology 
Committee, he knew of the security threat proliferation 
posed to Taiwan, neighboring countries, and the entire 
world.  He said the Taiwan government took export controls 
very seriously and had held high-level discussions on this 
matter.  Chen added that he understood how important it was 
to cooperate with the U.S. on this, and he completely 
understood the U.S. concerns.  He noted that the seven point 
statement that President Chen issued two days ago had a 
message between the lines that national security problems 
could be created by commercial interests in China.  Minister 
Chen said "your concerns are also our concerns" 
unfortunately, due to the political environment and 
necessary (democratic) procedures,  the Chen administration 
had found it hard to get all the results it wanted, but it 
was still proceeding along towards these goals. 
 
Thanks for Support on Maintaining Arms Embargo 
--------------------------------------------- ---------------- 
 
4.  (C) Minister Chen said Taiwan had deeply appreciated 
Deputy Secretary Zoellick's recent remarks against the EU 
lifting the embargo on weapon sales to China.  He said he 
would personally bring the export control non-paper ( 
reftel) to the President Chen's attention and discuss the 
issue with him during their 15-18 hour charter flight to 
Vatican City departing Taiwan in the afternoon.  He said 
everyone  agrees Taiwan's export controls need to be 
stronger.  But there were differences of opinion on how to 
proceed, how to best achieve stricter controls.  Chen said 
Taiwan had no argument with the principle message of the 
demarche.  He agreed the United States and Taiwan must work 
together to give the younger generation a secure world.  He 
noted that Taiwan had helped the U.S. in Afghanistan and 
Iraq.  He said that the challenge was how to achieve strict 
export controls in a "beautiful, efficient way. "   Chen 
summed up by noting that "There is no good reason for us not 
to commit to strict export control enforcement, it is good 
for the United States and good for Taiwan." 
 
5. (C) ADIR Keegan urged Minister Chen to ask why Taiwan 
needed to trade anything with North Korea and noted that 
virtually all export to North Korea were for military use. 
Chen responded to AIT comments regarding shortcomings of the 
Technology Protection Law now being considered by the 
legislature by asking if the United States could help Taiwan 
fix the flaws in the law by providing a model law on which 
to base their draft law. 
 
Ministry of Economic Affairs Will Make Full Effort 
--------------------------------------------- ---------------- 
 
6.  (C)   Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Mei-yueh told the 
ADIR that her minister was fully committed to establishing 
effective controls over Taiwan exports.  She outlined 
several steps that Taiwan would take to tighten export 
controls (sent separately via email to EAP/TC), beginning 
with a requirement for pre-shipment checks and licenses for 
sensitive technologies going to sensitive countries. 
However, she indicated her ministry would like U.S. help in 
end-user verification and would like to establish a system 
for information sharing so that when Taiwan authorities 
detect suspicious export activities they could pass the 
information on to the United States for further offshore 
investigation. 
 
7.  (C)  Minister Ho emphasized in closing that President 
Chen, the Foreign Minister and she all shared a 
determination to resolve the problems posed by the export of 
machine tools to North Korea, China and other countries of 
concern.  Her obligation, and that of her ministry, was to 
implement that commitment.  She said they would work closely 
with the United States to make that happen. 
KEEGAN