November 26, 2002

MAKING A MONKEY OUT OF LOS ANGELES

By Tom Plate

West Coast officials step into the morass of cross-straits relations

(C) 2002 Asia Pacific Media Network

LOS ANGELES -- The following story demonstrates the increasingly intimate tie between the local and the global.

It begins in Los Angeles, extends to Taipei and winds up in Beijing -- and it all started on Sept. 18, when the city council held a dedication ceremony in downtown Los Angeles for a new local monument -- the Sister City Direction and Distance Sign.

The intention of this municipal totem was harmless enough: to draw attention to Los Angeles' many happy relationships with its sister cities the world over. The monument has arrows pointing in all directions toward those cities -- and each records the distance in miles. Had the city fathers simply named each city and let it at that, everything would have been fine. Trouble erupted, however, over the distance and direction sign for Taipei. Here, unsophisticated L.A. officials stepped into the great black hole of Taiwan Straits relations.

Originally, the sign read "Taipei, Taiwan." The Taiwanese here were not thrilled with that, preferring "Taipei, Republic of China," which is what they and a handful of other nations -- though not the United Nations -- call Taiwan. They were realistic enough to accept what they could get, but then unexpectedly came a clandestine makeover crudely designed to ingratiate Los Angeles with the government of China.

On Nov. 14, without notice, the sign was changed to: "Taipei Municipality, Taiwan, China."

That indicates Taipei -- diplomatically at least -- is not a separate entity but just another province of China. That's Beijing's view, to be sure, but not Taipei's. Taipei insists it is the capital of an independent entity; Beijing insists it's an illegal, runaway province.

Upon hearing of the sign change, Taiwan officials, both in Los Angeles and in Taipei, were livid.

Popular Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou fired off a furious fax to his sister-city mayor of Los Angeles: "Changing our name is totally unacceptable to us," he complained to James K. Hahn. "We feel it is important to express the strength of feeling in Taipei on this matter, and we will take the necessary steps to maintain respect for Taipei's correct designation."

The next day, Taiwan's top West Coast representative, Jason Yuan, lodged a "solemn protest against (Hahn's) decision in putting our capital City of Taipei under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China." There were rumors of a large protest in front of city hall by Taiwanese-Americans, who in Southern California alone number a quarter of a million, a potent and highly educated political force.

So where was Hahn as the furies were flying? Off on a tour of Asia, most notably China, to drum up Summer Olympics 2008 contracts for city businesses. He was betting that the sign-slap to Taiwan's face would ingratiate him with Beijing and earn him as well a pair of rare Chinese pandas for the L.A. zoo.

But Hahn's ploy proved more local-yokel than global-noble. At this point in cross-straits diplomacy, Chinese officials -- well aware of the pro-Sino sign change in front of the red-faced Taiwanese -- are less than eager to roil relations. Rather, they are enticing Taiwan's businesses to continue massive investment on the mainland.

Hahn's people -- not swift in the international-diplomacy department -- thought they had the pandas in the bag (or at least in the cage). In truth, Chinese officials don't hand out pandas (an endangered species) as readily as hat-in-hand U.S. politicians (not, alas, an endangered species) kow-tow to the boys in Beijing. Thus, Hahn left the mainland with a fistful of contracts and a nice bear hug from mainland-China officials -- and nothing more exotic in the zoology department than a promise of monkeys.

It's even possible Beijing, not ordinarily sympathetic to Taiwan, felt some distress about the disrespectful way Los Angeles treated the Taiwanese community. Maybe the stupid incident will bring Beijing and Taiwan a little closer, as they conclude Americans -- or at least those running Los Angeles -- will never really understand their dispute.

And don't blame the Taiwanese here, still fighting the sign change as this column went to press, for finding considerable pleasure in the fact that Beijing made a monkey out of a Los Angeles local-yokel.

The following weekly column has just appeared in the Honolulu Advertiser, The South China Morning Post and The Straits Times of Singapore. The author, Tom Plate, is a regular columnist at these three papers. The column also appears in other world newspapers, including The San Francisco Chronicle, The Seattle Times, The Japan Times and The Korea Times. Email him at: tplate@ucla.edu.

For publication and reprint rights, contact the author directly or John Simpson (john.simpson@latsi.com) of the Los Angeles Times Syndicate International.

Previous Columns:

A Flex of Soft Power By Mr Microsoft Himself (November 19, 2002)

Bush Won, Saddam Lost -- What Else? (November 12, 2002)

Why The Greatest Generals Always Give Peace A Chance (November 6, 2002)

Call Him Senior Minister Jiang Zemin? (October 30, 2002)

(C) 2002 Asia Pacific Media Network