Collecting money to do things is exposed!

"Taiwan-U.S. relations are rock solid" turns out to be "money-flavored" in Taiwan-U.S. relations!

  [Global Times Special Correspondent Chen Zhengfei] The DPP authorities have often said in recent years that "Taiwan-US relations are rock-solid", but the truth is not entirely true.

Opening the foreign agent registration file of the US Department of Justice, it can be found that those things that the DPP authorities used to boast about the sound relationship between Taiwan and the United States were actually obtained by paying money to a political public relations firm in Washington.

The "Chuan-Tsai Call" was arranged by Tsai Ing-wen to the "political broker" Dole. Xiao Meiqin, the representative of Taipei in the United States, attended the inauguration of US President Biden, and also paid Guy Hart to lobby.

 Several old politicians collect money to do errands

  The U.S. government stipulates that anyone who conducts political lobbying on behalf of foreign authorities in the United States must be registered with the Department of Justice according to law.

  According to a report by Taiwan's "United Daily News" on the 16th, the DPP authorities have worked hard during the period of former US President Trump, paying Dole $20,000 a month.

Dole once represented the Republican Party to run for president of the United States. He became friendly with the Kuomintang in his early years. After he left Congress, he became Taiwan's "trump card" for lobbying in the United States.

During the Trump campaign, he took US$140,000 from Taiwan and successfully entered the Trump team on behalf of Taiwan.

It was through Dole's thread that Trump answered Tsai Ing-wen's call after he was elected.

The DPP authorities also invited Trump's son and daughter-in-law to participate in the activities of the Taipei representative office in the United States through Dole.

Gao Shuotai, the former representative of Taipei to the United States, had a meal with former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Gingrich, and it was also through him.

Dole died last December.

  Contacts with former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, DPP authorities, were made through Potomac International Partners, a monthly payment of $30,000.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice archives, Potomac had maintained close contact with Trump’s financial aides before Taiwan authorities agreed to open the import of “Lai pigs”. Simultaneously with the Taiwanese people or one step earlier, Potomac called to inform Pence of the news.

  After Biden took office, Taiwan's lobbying focus on the United States turned to the Democratic Party, among which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was the focus of Taiwan's operations.

This part is mostly done through Guy Hart, with DPP authorities paying $22,000 a month.

Gayhart was a former majority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives and is a senior political figure with considerable weight in the Democratic Party.

The U.S. Department of Justice archives and the Washington Center for International Policy’s investigation report on Taiwan’s lobbying in the U.S. last year showed that Gehart had contacted Pelosi 34 times with a number of political public relations firms representing Taiwan. Staff as many as 18 times.

The United News Network disclosed that the DPP authorities had previously hyped that Xiao Meiqin was invited to participate in the Biden inauguration, but according to the Ministry of Justice files, Gayhart asked Pelosi to vote in advance.

In July 2019, Tsai Ing-wen "transited" New York to meet Pelosi, and Lai Qingde "transited" to the United States to have a video call with Pelosi at the beginning of this year.

  In addition, US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Menendez and House Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Meeks, who visited Taiwan this year, are both targets of Taiwan's long-term wooing through US political public relations companies.

According to the data reported in 2019, the public relations firm entrusted by the Taiwan authorities contacted Menendez 6 times and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee 16 times.

Menendez has concocted quite a few pro-Taiwan bills in recent years, which is not unrelated to this.

Within days of Biden's inauguration in January 2021, Ma Boyuan, an official of the Taipei representative office in the United States, signed Ma Kai, a senior adviser to Meeks, at a price of $90,000 for half a year, asking Ma Kai to help Taiwan lobby.

  On April 27 last year, U.S. congressmen launched the so-called "Let Taiwan Help" campaign to promote Taiwan's effectiveness in epidemic prevention.

Some people on the island thought that Taiwan's epidemic prevention was so good that even U.S. congressmen knew it. In fact, on April 27, Gayhart's public relations firm sent a letter to 173 U.S. congressmen to deliberately create momentum.

However, the epidemic broke out in Taiwan soon, and the DPP authorities engaged in the so-called "export to domestic sales" political propaganda, which was still inferior to the spread of the epidemic caused by the omissions of epidemic prevention.

 Visiting Taiwan is a business

  Of course, it is not a panacea for the DPP authorities to find American public relations companies.

Biden announced the launch of the "Indo-Pacific Economic Framework" in Japan on May 23, and the Imperial Consulting Group, which signed a contract with the Taipei representative office in the United States, sent an email to several senator aides on May 11, inviting senators to join a joint letter to Biden. the ranks of the government.

The documents show that the Taipei representative office in the United States signed a contract with Imperial Consulting Group from January to July this year, with the former paying $15,000 a month.

However, considering the attitude of ASEAN, Biden still excluded Taiwan from the framework.

  In response to the DPP authorities spending a lot of money to find public relations companies to manage Taiwan-US relations, Taiwan's "Ministry of Foreign Affairs" spokesman Ou Jiangan responded on the 16th that this is a "long-standing practice" across different political parties. The relevant budgets are also supervised by the "Legislative Yuan".

  As early as the Chiang Kai-shek period, some people from the Kuomintang authorities engaged in lobbying against the United States, but it was Lee Teng-hui who used Washington's political public relations company and became a topic of concern.

In 1994, Lee Teng-hui hired the American Cassidy Company to lobby the American Congress through the "big housekeeper" Liu Taiying at a high price of 1.5 million US dollars per year.

Under Cassidy's operation, in 1995, hundreds of US congressmen jointly invited Lee Teng-hui to visit the United States.

Perhaps because Lee Teng-hui was too hasty, Taiwan's lobbying annoyed many political consulting firms on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, and also touched the knot between the U.S. State Department and Congress.

In a fit of rage, the State Department temporarily cut off all contact and communication channels with the Taipei representative office in the United States.

  After Chen Shui-bian came to power, he officially cooperated with BGR public relations company under the help of Qiu Yiren, who was then the "Secretary-General of the National Security Council" in Taiwan.

Ye Wanghui, a former vice president of BGR, is an important diplomatic aide to Trump.

After that, the Ma Ying-jeou administration chose 6 political public relations companies for cooperation, many of which were established by Republican and Democratic lawmakers after they left office.

  In this context, the visit to Taiwan by former US Secretary of State Pompeo and Menendez this year is more like a transaction.

Take Pompeo as an example. During his visit to Taiwan in March, there was a suspected contract signed between the Taipei representative office in the United States and the American political public relations company Premiere Speakers Bureau, which stated that Pompeo was invited to visit with a sponsorship of US$150,000. tower.

The contract also clearly states that the team's first-class flights, high-end hotel accommodation, meals and miscellaneous expenses are not included.

Public opinion on the island said that the two sides can be said to have what they need, and Pompeo is planning ahead for the 2024 US presidential election.

The Cai authorities need him to help carry out "big internal propaganda".

  "You lobby, I pay the bill"

  What's even more outrageous is that the "allied country" Guatemala used a public relations company to lobby the United States, but the DPP authorities paid the bill.

Taiwan media disclosed in January this year that Guatemala handed over an important lobbying operation to Trump's confidant Ballard and used him to lobby the Biden administration.

To this end, Guatemala paid Ballard $900,000, but Taiwan paid the bill.

And Guatemala did not shy away from suspicion, and also issued a statement thanking the Taiwan authorities for their support.

  In addition to the United States, the Taiwan authorities will also hire public relations firms to lobby in Japan.

In order to strengthen ties with European parliaments, the DPP even directly invited so-called Taiwan-friendly parliamentarians at its own expense.

According to a report by China Times Electronic News on the 15th, several Slovak lawmakers visited Taiwan a few days ago, but Zhao Shaokang, chairman of "Zhongguang", disclosed that they were visiting in their personal capacities.

Zhao Shaokang also posted an email reply from the Slovak parliament, which stated that the Slovak parliament did not know that this group was visiting Taiwan, and that these people did not know before they went.

He criticized the Taiwan authorities for yet another "generous act of generosity to Taiwan taxpayers", a waste of public funds and a shameful arrangement.

A large number of netizens scolded Tsai Ing-wen as the authorities for shame.

  Lv Zhixiang, a senior media person on the island, wrote that the DPP authorities are keen to use American agents for lobbying and public relations. Relevant statistics show that since 2016, the Tsai Ing-wen authorities have spent more than 12 million US dollars in the United States, and non-official organizations have also invested more than 9 million US dollars. US dollars, but "you lobby, I pay" is a bad example, and the authorities should give taxpayers an explanation.

"United Daily News" said on the 16th that the activities operated by political public relations companies will have certain effects, but "it is not pragmatic to rely on others to help open up the joints, and the government will use it for internal publicity."

Some analysts say that some American politicians are willing to send wrong signals to "Taiwan independence" separatists for their own interests.

The DPP authorities used money to create a "rock solid" illusory scene, deceived the people on the island, and tied the whole of Taiwan to the "Taiwan independence" chariot.

The mutual collusion between Taiwan and the United States is the source of regional chaos, seriously damaging cross-strait relations and the situation in the Taiwan Strait.