Meeting Lai by "Accident," Harris Keeps Her Distance on Facebook
United Daily News, January 30, 2022
Vice President William Lai and Vice President Kamala Harris of the United States met by “accident” at the presidential inauguration in Honduras, but a later photo posted on Harris’s Facebook shows only one unidentifiable hand. Former Minister of Foreign Affairs Chen Chien-jen stated that Taiwan must have wanted to amplify its propaganda, but the photo of "removing Lai" indicates American desire to refrain from adding fuel to the fire and angering mainland China.
There was no public response from Lai’s team yesterday but it is understood that the goal of the special envoy has been achieved. Since the American response is beyond our control — this episode concludes as a job well done.
Harris arrived at the inauguration long after Lai, deliberately bypassing King Felipe VI of Spain and President Carlos Quesada of Costa Rica. Security then gave the green light for her to greet Prime Minister Johnny Briceño of Belize, a convenient place for her to speak with Lai.
Foreign sources said that there was a tacit agreement between Taiwan and the United States to deliberately leave a photo of Lai and Harris in the same frame — it would have otherwise been unlikely for Harris to bypass two foreign dignitaries and happen upon the spot next to Lai. This seems to indicate the sort of unintentional tacit understanding reached weeks ago, that the United States would meet informally, avoiding the official label of a “talk” but also the ire of the Chinese Communist Party.
Harris’s official Facebook page posted four photos: a larger one of her arriving via military aircraft and others at the bilateral meeting and inauguration ceremony. According to the report, one has to click a bit closer to see the photo where Lai was “cut,” perhaps a subliminal message that the United States intends to keep things subtle.
Director Eric Huang of the opposition Kuomintang’s representative office preparation task force in the United States stated that the photo released by the White House cropping Lai reveals serious pressure on the United States, that “pragmatic diplomacy is still more important than breaking through the public relations." However, the importance of public relations may be over exaggerated, which are not necessarily helpful to substantive exchanges and may even lead to a break in U.S.-Taiwan relations.
Legislator Tsai Shi-ying of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) stated that the Facebook photo of Harris is a clear expression of Taiwan's "presence as a friend” and its status as an "official entity." Its editing-in-post was simply a way to avoid protests from the mainland.
Associate Professor Huang Kuei-bo of the Department of Diplomacy at National Chengchi University suggested that "this is not a normal arrangement." Taiwan should realize clearly that the United States is strictly abiding by its “One China” policy. He also said that when Lai moved to the side of Harris, his staff rushed out to take a photo, which made him laugh bitterly. Taiwan is perhaps the only country whose representatives would do a thing like this.
Dale Jieh, former representative to the New Zealand, stated that the United States downplayed the accidental meeting between Lai and Harris. This is also because the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen played up the incident too much in the internal propaganda, which motivated the United States side to move to "cool it down." The United States is very clever and will not let the Tsai administration leverage U.S.-Taiwan relations for a stunt.