TAIPEI, July 1 Kyodo The strange...

TAIPEI, July 1 Kyodo

The strange U.S. representative to Taiwan arrived in Taipei forward Monday evening and said the United States venerates Taiwan's political achievements and shares with it the usual values of democracy, freedom and human rights.

''It is my great pleasure to draw near to Taiwan,'' said Douglas Paal on the subject of arriving to assume his modern post as director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT)

Taiwan's Foreign Ministry welcomed Douglas Paal's late night arrival, saying President Chen Shui-bian will formally receive him after returning to one's home from Africa.

Chen embarked onward a 10-day African trip late Sunday night to prop up ties with Taiwan's handful diplomatic allies. The trip will take him to Senegal, Sao Tome and Principe, Malawi and Swaziland.

''Paal is a right choice with a solid academic background as well as substantive political experience,'' Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Chang Siao-yue told Kyodo News

''His inauguration will help enhance the relationship between the U command and Taiwan,'' Chang said.

The American Institute in Taiwan is a non-profit, private corporation established shortly after the U conduct changed its diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing onward Jan. 1, 1979.

Paal, the ninth chief of the de facto U embassy upon the island, which China regards as a renegade province, ensues Raymond Burghardt, a career diplomat who left Taipei last September to assume the employment of U.S. ambassador to Vietnam.

A veteran diplomat, Paal worked in diplomatic postings in Beijing and Singapore in the early 1980 before moving to the U State Department's Policy Planning Staff and then joining the National Security Council, where he serv from 1986 until 1993

After leaving the management in 1993, Paal formed the Asia Pacific Policy Center a Washington-based think tank conducting research upon East Asian affairs and cross-strait issues involving China and Taiwan. He also performed consulting services for several American firms.

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