Posted on: Saturday, April 28, 2001

DeLay pouring fuel on a fiery relationship

With U.S.-China relations at least temporarily on thin ice, you have to wonder why in the world House Majority Whip Tom DeLay would choose to build a bonfire out there.

But that is precisely what he is doing by publicly making a show of meeting, greeting and hosting Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian when he passes through the United States in June.

That is an unnecessary and provocative thumb in the eye of Chinese officials. It's doubtful that even Chen is anxious to make a big show of his American hospitality when he stops in New York and Houston during his trip to Latin America.

The United States formally recognizes the government in Beijing as the government of China. DeLay says that's nonsense, and that Taiwan's leader deserves official diplomatic courtesies because Taiwan is a democracy while China is a "communist dictatorship."

True enough. But DeLay's actions simply irritate the dictatorship we happen to have recognized as the legitimate government of China and will make it harder to forge a productive, constructive relationship with that government. In the end, a constructive, productive relationship is the only way we will ever see Taiwan's good example spread to the Mainland.