Let me tell you a funny story about Taiwan.
OK, maybe it’s not so funny. The Chinese certainly wouldn’t think it is — but I chuckled when I recently realized what I had innocently gotten myself in the middle of.
Here it is: A couple of months ago, I suggested that Taiwan contact then-candidate Donald Trump to say hello. In fact, it was when everyone else in the media world was predicting — without a doubt in their minds — that Hillary Clinton would run away with the election.
As you know — and if you don’t, I’m happy to tell you again — I’m the only journalist in America who thought that Trump not only had a chance to win but also that he would win. I wrote that in many columns.
I’m also the guy who went out on the thinnest of limbs and said Trump would be a formidable competitor when he announced his candidacy in 2015. While late-night TV hosts were busy making fun of him, I was taking him seriously.
That takes me back to my Taiwan story.
Back in mid-September, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) was holding the Taiwan Excellence Product Showcase 2016 Media Luncheon in Manhattan. (The group obviously is not very good at coming up with catchy names, but I didn’t hold it against them.)
Anyway, that country was showing off its products and had invited a bunch of journalists to attend the showcase at the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle as well as the lunch at a hotel on Central Park South.
I couldn’t attend, didn’t want to or — unlikely — wasn’t hungry that day. I probably thought it was one of those long, drawn-out lunches and I didn’t have the time. So, instead, I suggested a meeting with one of the country’s representatives.
The group was amenable. So, right before the lunch was to take place, I met with Francis Kuo-Hsin Liang, the chairman of TAITRA, at his suite in the JW Marriott Essex House. It was the two of us sitting across from each other at a small table, with his entourage of about a half dozen people backed against the walls and not saying a thing even when I addressed them.
Liang and I talked about this and that. Taiwan’s products. The country’s trade positions. The film industry — which I had just read Taiwan was interested in, and so on. Liang and I were getting along well.
That’s when I told him that Trump was going to win the election. He didn’t chuckle. In fact, he didn’t seem to have much of a reaction — it was as if I had told him it was going to rain.
I asked what he thought about that possibility. Liang said Trump’s election would make his country worry about the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade pact that Asian countries were — and still are — hoping the US would join.
That’s when I suggested to Liang that his country get in touch with Trump. I said I knew Trump and he was a nice, reasonable guy and that’s what his country should do. In other words, why not put a call in?
It was just another meeting — tucked back in my wrinkled day-planner — until the Taiwan situation exploded into the headlines last week.
Trump claims that the Taiwanese called to congratulate him on his election. News organizations, including the Washington Post, claim that Trump was purposely trying to provoke the Chinese by either contacting a representative of the Taiwanese government or by accepting a call.
Bob Dole, the former presidential candidate, is said to have brokered the phone call.
You see, the Chinese don’t get along with Taiwan, or for that matter, Hong Kong. In fact, our “One China” policy — whereby the US only officially recognizes mainland China — has been in place for decades.
So, my suggestion — like Trump taking that call — was a major political faux pas. I honestly don’t know whether my little, off-hand remark had anything to do with what later happened. But I did contact Liang’s representative after the election to remind him that “I told him so.”
For the record, I’m not in favor of antagonizing the Chinese even if the president-elect might be. The Chinese have been very nice to us when it comes to buying our debt — even if lately they’ve mostly been selling it. So why bite the hand that . . .
Let me also say for posterity that I’m sorry if I caused Liang or anyone else in Taiwan or Washington to break with longstanding protocol. I wasn’t trying to shake the swamp — although I think the correct way to say that would be “stir up the swamp.”
But I’m still going to have lunch with Liang when he’s back in town. Francis, call me. I have some more ideas that’ll get us into trouble.