Is Graham's Request for Taiwan to Purchase 24 Boeing 787 Aircraft a Rashomon？
Summary report by Taiwan Weekly
When he led a United States Congressional delegation to visit Taiwan on April 15, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham asked President Tsai Ing-wen to purchase Boeing 787 airliners. After returning to the United States, he raised the matter again on Aril 22, and plainly said, "I hope that Taiwan will announce the purchase of the 24 aircraft as soon as possible." According to the United Daily News report on April 28, Senator Graham asked Taiwan to buy Boeing aircraft. However, both the Office of the President and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) denied such allegations of Graham’s coercion. Director-General Chen Ming-tong of the National Security Bureau (NSB) suspected the report as "cognitive warfare" when answering questions in the Legislative Yuan that day.
At the Legislative Yuan on April 28, Legislator Liao Wan-ju of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) questioned when members of the U.S. Congress asked Taiwan to buy Boeing 787 while calling on President Tsai, are there any doubts about their using political weight to promote business? Chen replied, "These are business sales initiatives. I seriously doubt that a certain party is engaging in cognitive warfare, and the NSB is countering the cognitive warfare waged by the other side of the Strait every day.”
When questioned by Legislator Wang Ting-yu of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as to how he viewed media reports "narrowing, distorting, and vilifying Taiwan-U.S. relations." Chen reiterated, "I seriously doubt that it is a cognitive war."
At a routine press conference on April 28, Director-General Hsu Yu-tien of the Department of North American Affairs, MOFA, responded to the United Daily News report of the day that "the United States forces selling Taiwan 24 Boeing 787 airliners, but China Airlines does not want the deal." He said such maliciously defamatory reports not only distorted the original intention of our friends from the Congress, damaged the friendship between Taiwan and the United States, but also purposely undermined people’s confidence in our diplomatic work. Its intention was questionable, and the MOFA deeply regrets it.
However, the media continued to reveal that there was a live webcast of the meeting that day. The video showed that Senator Graham said to President Tsai, "We hope you will buy (Boeing) 787 made in South Carolina." However, the interpreter there omitted this sentence, instead, the translation was "I very much hope that we will have very good results in the offing." As can be seen in the video, President Tsai did not respond at the scene, but nodded frequently.
About 17 minutes after Graham’s speech, Senator Portman mentioned again, "Senator Graham referred to Boeing 787 airliners produced in South Carolina just now, and their engines are from Ohio." It was only then the interpreter translated the original text truthfully.
Senator Graham's statement that he hoped Taiwan to purchase Boeing 787 can be found in the English verbatim transcript provided on the website of the Presidential Office, but the Chinese version of the press release did not show this specific part of the text.
The English version of the Office of the President press release clearly mentions that Senator Graham hopes to strengthen U.S.-Taiwan economic ties and that Taiwan buys the Boeing 787 aircraft, made in South Carolina. But the Chinese version of the press release only documents Senator Graham’s remarks that Taiwan is already an indispensable partner of the United States and the world in terms of economy and digital technology and his hopes to further strengthen the economic and trade relationship between the two countries. The Chinese version of the press release, as it stands, does not mention the statements about airliners procurement at all.
Spokesman Chang Dun-han of the Office of the President stated that the Chinese and English versions of the press release have always been "polished"; Taiwan and the United States have been closely cooperating in various fields and the bilateral relations continue to deepen, but the procurement of air transport equipment as such should be subject to professional evaluation.
Legislator Tseng Ming-chung, whip of the KMT caucus of the Legislative Yuan, criticized that the government failed to be truthful with the original speeches of the visiting foreign dignitaries. From the perspective of international politics, it is understandable if visiting guests make certain requests, which should be properly handled. However, the Office of the President and MOFA chose to distort the guests’ original intention when explaining to the public, which is basically treating the people as fools and being disrespectful to the United States.
Legislator Chiu Chen-yuan, whip of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) caucus, stated that both Chinese and English press releases were provided by the Presidential Office. The extent of difference between the two versions of press release is a lot more than the degree of “polishing” maintained by the Presidential Office. "In terms of cognitive warfare, it must have been the DPP administration’s initiative."
Professor Shih Cheng-feng of National Dong Hwa University stated that the so-called "polishing" is to modify the words and phrases to make them a little bit better. How can interpreters "make up" the official words of foreign guests? After the "well-meant" polishing, the Presidential Office was effectively "tampering" with the official records to deceive the people.
At a press conference in Taiwan on April 15, Senator Graham also mentioned that he hoped Boeing's airliners could be sold to Taiwan, including Taiwan's China Airlines. "As we have more business exchanges, the relationship between the two sides will go from strength to strength." After returning to the United States, Graham issued a press release on the 22nd, more specifically stating that, "I hope in the next few weeks, Taiwan will announce the purchase of 24 Boeing 787 wide-body airliners built in South Carolina. That will be an 8-billion-dollar project. I hope Taiwan will make this decision.”
This procurement project of up to $8 billion is regarded as a new target of the United States to Taiwan after the case of ractopamine pork. It is understood that the China Airlines fleet in active service are 22 A-330-300 passenger aircraft. Although they are reaching retirement period, the company is reserved about the procurement case. It only indicates that the mid and long-term fleet replacement plan will continue to be carried out.
From:
https://udn.com/news/story/122703/6272268
https://udn.com/news/story/122703/6277818
https://english.president.gov.tw/News/6262