A couple of days ago, Reuters ran a story that I thought better of publishing until I saw a reaction from China. The South China Morning Post quotes the Global Times as saying China must prepare for a military engagement with the US over Taiwan. Reuters did not quote that part of the Times story. There were few other comments and the South China Morning Post did not have much to add to the GT writings. So, Chinese press guidance must have told the papers to lay off the story, which said the US was opening what amounted to an embassy in Taiwan. It will be called a "representative office" and have close to 500 employees. We have to admit that is a lot of staff for a stake-in-the-ground office.
There are a number of representative offices listed on the State Department site, and I now know why the State Department has so many employees. They need to screen these places now and again and limit the number they have. I took a sample of these to give my readers an idea of where the tax dollars go:
Special Representative for Global Partnerships
Special Representative for the Great Lakes Region of Africa
Special Representative for International Labor Affairs
Special Representative to Muslim Communities
Special Representative of North Korea Policy* (also Deputy Assistant Secretary in East Asia and Pacific Affairs Bureau)
U.S. Special Representative to the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) (Linda S. Taglialatela)* (also Ambassador to Barbados)
U.S. Special Representative for Religion and Global Affairs
Now we can add a special representative to Taiwan, and add about 499 people to help this person out. They could have two embassies for what this one is costing. If the Chinese took the advice from the Global Times, it would take weeks to evacuate all the people and their families. We better hope they don't.
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