Eni Embarrasses American Samoa over Taiwan

At a time when Governor Togiola is working fervently to increase Taiwan interest in doing business with American Samoa, Faleomavaega appears to be continuing to do his best to sabotage U.S. relations with the Asian island nation. In the previous Congress, he enraged Taipei officials by opposing the U.S. sale of F-16 fighter jets to the government and now he is leading the charge to weaken U.S.-Taiwan ties under the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA).

The respected and influential Taipei Times on March 25 published an editorial headlined “Faleomavaega: no friend of Taiwan” in which the delegate was accused of making changes in a resolution offered by 18 of his colleagues “that would attempt to weaken application of the TRA.” Faleomavaega has visited Taiwan countless times over the years including once when he chose to be part of an election observation team there rather than return to American Samoa following a devastating hurricane.

The Times noted that this is not the first time he has tried to loosen U.S. ties with Taiwan. In addition to the F-16 issue, he opposed wording in a separate resolution on Taiwan that passed the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in February last year and the full House in March. According to the Times, his position “revealed shocking ignorance of the U.S. stance on Taiwan from someone who is in a position to frustrate House efforts such as the TRA anniversary resolution. More disturbingly, it sounded like the rambling of an official from Beijing.”

This should come as no surprise from someone who in Hanoi just a little over a year ago would toast Vietnamese Communist dictator Ho Chi Minh’s leadership. Inasmuch as it is very unlikely this editorial will pass muster at Samoa News, where Faleomavaega’s sister-in-law is a top editor, you can read the full text here:

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2009/03/25/2003439322