When the Republican National Committee convened in Chicago last August for its annual summer meeting, it unanimously approved a resolution urging the White House to supply a host of weapons, ranging from submarines to advanced warplanes, to the island nation of Taiwan.
However, Justice Department records show the resolution was not written by any of the RNC’s members, but by Marshall Harris, a lobbyist who had been hired by the Taiwanese government to further its interests in Washington.
Under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, lobbyists representing foreign governments are required to disclose their activities to the U.S. attorney general. According to the disclosure documents filed by Harris’s employer Alston & Bird, an Atlanta-based law firm, he wrote a draft of the resolution a month before the RNC’s 2014 summer meeting.
Once the text reached the RNC, committee members cut several phrases and paragraphs, one of which called for Taiwan’s inclusion in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a proposed free trade agreement that has been described as a “high priority” by the Obama administration. The text that remained, however, was copied nearly word for word from Harris’s draft.
Neither the RNC nor Harris responded to questions about the resolution. Taiwan’s Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington, D.C. said the RNC often passes resolutions supporting Taiwan, and that the country has “a longstanding and solid friendship” with the Republican Party.
Taiwan engages in extensive lobbying of the U.S. government — not just representatives and senators but congressional staffers and even state-level officials — that receives less public attention than that of countries such as Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The island nation is viewed as a wayward province by China, and the two have been locked in a bitter standoff since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. Taiwan, eager to narrow China’s military edge, has long seen the acquisition of advanced U.S. weapons as a national priority. But such sales would stoke already high tensions with Beijing, a risk that has led the past three U.S. administrations to rebuff the island’s demands for newer submarines and fighter jets.
“We expect our political leaders to be independent of various interests,” Lee Drutman, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation’s political reform program, told The Intercept. “They’re supposed to weigh the claims that various interests might have, and try to evaluate them in some way. If they say, ‘You know what? We’re not going to do that. We’re just going to pick a side and let them write it for us,’ then what’s the point of having political parties as intermediaries? Why not just let lobbyists have seats in Congress?”
Both parties, Drutman said, often outsource the drafting of statements and legislations to lobbyists, in a process with very limited transparency.
With an army of lobbyists at its command in Washington, Taiwan embarked last year on a major push to sway Congress and public opinion in favor of expanding military ties between the two countries. In 2014 Taiwan had at least seven lobbying groups on its payroll, at a total cost of more than $1.39 million.
Leading the charge was former Republican Senate majority leader and 1996 GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole, who now works as a lobbyist for Alston & Bird. In the past year, Dole has personally invited a number of former Bush administration officials, including former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to speak with Taiwanese diplomats. Leveraging his public image to Taiwan’s advantage, he wrote an op-ed that appeared in the Washington Times in January in which he called for increased arms sales to the island nation.
“Taiwan’s greatest need is new submarines. It currently has four diesel electric vessels, and these are, by military and technological standards, ancient,” Dole wrote in his Washington Times op-ed. “Our government, apparently succumbing to intimidation, has taken no further action. Nor has it agreed to enable Taiwan to buy new F-16 fighters — another glaring deficiency in the nation’s arsenal.”
Dole’s position as a paid lobbyist for Taiwan was not disclosed by the publication, although Dole did write that Taiwan “counts me among those assisting with its agenda in Washington.”
The lobbying push appears to have paid off. In 2014 Congress authorized the sale of four warships to the island and during the past year, members of Congress introduced three other bills and resolutions that stressed the importance of Taiwan’s defensive needs. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, lobbyists were busy inundating lawmakers with hundreds of emails and phone calls, urging them to support Taiwan on Capitol Hill. Several employees at one lobbying firm, the Washington-based Gephardt Government Affairs, reached out to members of Congress and their staff on at least 300 occasions between the months of February and July last year, according to Justice Department records. Gephardt Government Affairs was founded by prominent Democrat Dick Gephardt, House Majority Leader from 1989 to 1995.
Taiwan has a history of meddling with the drafting of both parties’ political platforms. In 1996, Taiwanese diplomats influenced the wording of a Democratic National Committee resolution by flying Democratic officials to Taipei and throwing lavish parties in their honor, the Wall Street Journal reported at the time.
“[Taiwan’s] current lobbying seems to focus on two major areas: sale of advanced weapons to Taiwan, and Taiwan’s participation in international organizations whose membership does not require statehood,” according to Zhiqun Zhu, a professor of political science and the director of Bucknell University’s China Institute. “Given China’s expanding power and influence, Taiwan has no choice but continue to lobby very hard to maintain the substantive relations with Washington.”
To preserve its special relationship with Capitol Hill, Taiwan often goes to great lengths, sometimes even skirting the boundaries of the law. In 2012, an investigation by ProPublica revealed that the Taiwanese government had invited then-New York Representative Bill Owens on an all-expenses-paid trip to Taipei. The trip later sparked a probe by the Office of Congressional Ethics, which found that the Congressman’s visit had likely violated federal law.
House rules mostly prohibit lobbyists from planning congressional visits, but the State Department can waive such restrictions if the trip is organized under the Mutual Education and Cultural Exchange Act. The law lifts most disclosure requirements for trips overseas, allowing members of Congress to travel on foreign-government-sponsored trips with little oversight. Owens’s visit did not fall under MECEA, however, because his wife accompanied him, and the law prohibits spouses or family members from taking part in the program.
Lobbyists representing Taiwan often encourage lawmakers to make use of the loophole. When Gephardt Government Affairs aggressively courted Congress last year, its employees brought up the possibility of a MECEA visit 24 times, the Department of Justice documents show.
Between 2006 and 2011, more than 100 visits to Taiwan were organized under the program, the second-highest number of any country. During the same period, in a similar example of the constant, subterranean lobbying of the U.S. government generally unnoticed by U.S. citizens, the highest number of such trips — over 200 — was sponsored by Taiwan’s rival China.
I think people are hung up on the details, but missing the bigger picture. TPP in my mind is designed to curb China’s influence in Asia, and re-establish US as a player in that region. Both democrats and republicans understands this, and agrees on it. However, no one wants to come out and say this. This is why it appears to be so secretive , and they are happy to have the lobbiests do the dirty work.
Lobbyists have been writing GOP legislation for years… what’s new here?
“Taiwan engages in extensive lobbying of the U.S. government — not just representatives and senators but congressional staffers and even state-level officials — that receives less public attention than that of countries such as Israel and Saudi Arabia.”
Yes, that’s because unlike rogue states like Israel and Saudi Arabia, Taiwan has an incredibly peaceful outlook and the weapons are to maintain its army and capability for self-defence. As John Hannah mentioned in his comment below, considering Taiwan are completely frozen out of the UN, have no embassies, and are forced out of the international community by China, what other resource does it have? Other countries, that are in the UN and do have veto power, are still using America’s outdated system of political corruption and bribery so why not Taiwan too?
While the republicans took the brunt of this article, I clearly remember Nancy Pelosi’s astute remark while commenting on the Affordable Care Act “We have to pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it.” There are lobbyists, foreign and domestic, involved with most legislation. The fact this particular case involves more arms shipments to anyone is despicable. Support for Taiwan is something that should never have been diminished, but let’s be honest. How many submarines and F-16s would we have to ship for Taiwan to defend itself from mainland China? Our war mongering government, as usual, interprets support as arms shipments. Enough already. Doesn’t every country have enough guns by now?
One quibble.
There is no “our government” in North America.
Money determines policy, both domestic and foreign.
Thanks for reminding me of the quote by Pelosi. She obviously thinks people are clueless and
that is reinforced every time she is elected.
Don’t know if you’re old enough to remember a song by the band Jethro Tull, Locamotive Breath, but it’s worth a listen. It was from 1971 yet it is even more relevant today. When TPTB refer to citizens as consumers, it’s not hard to see what really rules. Here’s a link to the writer’s thoughts on the song.
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=12672
Washington is lucky to have lobbyists who are willing to do the drudge work of writing legislation and political party resolutions. Some of the text is too technical to be trusted to unpaid interns, and of course, politicians are too busy networking and party functionaries are too busy fundraising to attend to such mundane matters.
It’s true that a paid lobbyist is probably not completely objective about affairs related to Taiwan. However, new journalism recognizes that objectivity is somewhat a fictitious concept. Rather than strike a false posture of neutrality, it is often better to simply strive for honesty by acknowledging your own interests and priorities. The same philosophy applies to lobbyists. Therefore the legislation they draft should be judged on its own merits, rather than being summarily dismissed based on a perceived lack of objectivity.
You always make me smile, Benito.
If only the politicians would read the proposed laws on which they are asked to vote, and would have enough knowledge to judge them on their merits, instead of judging them on the pleasantness of the recent junket or the number of votes they owe to the bill’s main sponsor.
Also, Duce, no conflict of interest. They want to give the weapons to Taiwan, not sell them, which would mean a third-party sale. Instead, these members of Congress would be buying the weapons from (presumably) American firms, with American taxpayer money. Keeps the financial transactions Stateside, and the weapons then go freely. Buon Natale!
So, the republicans are doing the same work as the democrats.
What a surprise! not
The democrat dominated senate Unanimously approved warships for Taiwan in 2014,
but we are supposed to think the republicans are worse?
I think the point of the story was the Republicans were so lazy as to let a lobbyist write nearly the entire text of their resolution, not that the Democrats were not also influenced by lobbyists.
Considering the amount of verbiage spent on Taiwan’s pervasive lobbying, I would have niggled that we weren’t notified higher up in the story that the only country with more MECEA trips than Taiwan was Mainland China, at DOUBLE the number sponsored by Taiwan. But the information is there for anyone who reads until the end. The main point is the lack of wisdom in letting lobbyists write the bills, not which country is most aggressive at lobbying.
Oops! Or which political party is the worst offender.
I support the publication of information about lobbying efforts, lobbyists writing legislation, and which politicians are influenced by which lobbyists. Not all the information can be in every story. It will of necessity come out piecemeal, with one or the other party, one or another politician looking bad from one week to the next, as the information comes to light.
The information I cited was in this article.
That is why the main focus on the republicans is not where the focus needs to be.
This behavior is throughout both democrats and republicans and any of their corporate client states.
Well agreeing skirting various laws isn’t the best way to gain influence, Taiwan doesn’t have many options considering the overwhelming weight of China and its smothering tactics against legal contacts with the US. Having once lived there for over 15 years, it is pretty disgusting that such a lively democracy is treated with with such indifference and contempt when it attempts to gain some space in its relations with official America.
For once Benito, at least the last part of your comment is lucid and worthy of consideration, if only any legislation was or is ever judged on its own merits. As it is, a panoply of paper with self serving, benevolent sounding names fills the halls of Congress thereafter becoming law of the land which only later are found to be the exact opposite of their namesake.
Sorry John, that comment was obviously meant for Benito. I wrote and posted it before I had even scrolled down to your comment. Search me!!!
Not knowing the demographic makeup of TI readers, I’ll speak only for myself. I’m 62 years old and remember well the special relationship the US and Taiwan used to enjoy before Nixon’s famous trip. The ensuing favoritism enjoyed by mainland China and the tossing of Taiwan under the bus was the catalyst for my own awakening to the real world of foreign and domestic affairs. As a child in school we were taught that Taiwan was a bastion of Democracy and freedom whom we would support ’til the bitter end. Our own touted economic benefits by trading with mainland China brought that bitter end quite quickly. As long as there’s money to be made for the elite, any claims for supporting Democracy will fade to the cries for economic growth. It’s nearly always about the money.
Of course they have to outsource/offshore their job of making policy… it frees up time to travel the world on waived lobbyists dimes.
But seriously, the repubs in particular seem to have a knack for putting the interests of others ahead of what is best for America (Bibi Inc. comes to mind).
With Taiwan weapons sales, and the corresponding military buildup by China, the warmongers in this country can run around like their hair is on fire demanding that we spend more too… a circle jerk of misallocation that funnels taxpayer dollars into the pockets of the billionaires that bought their elections…
… when an actual conflict would be horrible for all of us.
Sheesh.
At least the Dems shilling for the same billionaires take the time to rewrite the policies.
Dole should have stuck with pimping [email protected] It seems that the corollary to “only the good die young” is that the bad die very old.