NYTimes | Former Senator Bob Dole,
acting as a foreign agent for the government of Taiwan, worked behind
the scenes over the past six months to establish high-level contact
between Taiwanese officials and President-elect Donald J. Trump’s staff, an outreach effort that culminated last week in an unorthodox telephone call between Mr. Trump and Taiwan’s president.
Mr.
Dole, a lobbyist with the Washington law firm Alston & Bird,
coordinated with Mr. Trump’s campaign and the transition team to set up a
series of meetings between Mr. Trump’s advisers and officials in
Taiwan, according to disclosure documents filed last week with the
Justice Department. Mr. Dole also assisted in successful efforts by
Taiwan to include language favorable to it in the Republican Party
platform, according to the documents.
Mr. Dole’s firm received $140,000 from May to October for the work, the forms said.
The
disclosures suggest that President-elect Trump’s decision to take a
call from the president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, was less a ham-handed
diplomatic gaffe and more the result of a well-orchestrated plan by
Taiwan to use the election of a new president to deepen its relationship
with the United States — with an assist from a seasoned lobbyist well
versed in the machinery of Washington.
“They’re
very optimistic,” Mr. Dole said of the Taiwanese in an interview on
Tuesday. “They see a new president, a Republican, and they’d like to
develop a closer relationship.”
The United States’ One China policy is nearly four decades old, Mr. Dole said, referring to the policy
established in 1979 that denies Taiwan official diplomatic recognition
but maintains close contacts, promoting Taiwan’s democracy and selling
it advanced military equipment.
