Nobody wants to be a fool but Taiwan is. That’s more than lavishly illustrated by a snowballing diplomatic brokering scandal, for involvement in which at least three top government officials, including a vice premier and a foreign minister, have resigned to take responsibility.
Chiou I-jen was the secretary-general at the National Security Council in August 2006 when he ordered Foreign Minister James Huang to make a secret deal with two diplomatic brokers, who claimed they could get Papua New Guinea to recognize Taiwan.Huang remitted US$30 million to a joint account the brokers held in a Singapore bank on September 14.The actual remittance was US$29.8 million, minus US$200,000, which had been advanced as a “working fund.”At the end of the year, Huang called a halt to the brokering and demanded the money back.The money was gone, and one of the brokers, Ching Chi-jiu has gone into hiding in the United States.Huang claimed he was cheated.He stepped down.So did Chiou as vice premier. Another official, Ko Chen-heng had to resign as deputy minister of national defense, for he was implicated as a kickback recipient.
The reason why they would even tried to call for help from the two apparently well-known conmen to set up diplomatic relations between Taiwan and Papua New Guinea is simple.Taiwan is in sad need of diplomatic allies, probably for a very short period of time.As a matter of fact, Papua New Guinea and Taiwan established diplomatic ties in 1999 for a mere three days.
（本文刊載於97.05.12 中國時報第F2版，本文代表作者個人意見）
