The United States should negotiate a free trade deal with Taiwan to demonstrate American support of democracies, despite the inevitable anger that would arouse in the nearby communist Chinese dictatorship.

So says Claude Barfield, resident scholar with the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington think tank, writing in a recent monograph.

While President Bush is in the waning days of his eight-year tenure in the White House, he nonetheless should have a go at it, and attempt to negotiate a free trade deal with Taiwan and push it through Congress, Barfield argued.

He has no doubt as to the enraged reaction that would provoke in Beijing, which has warned other Asian nations not to negotiate free trade agreements with Taiwan, Barfield noted.

China claims that Taiwan is a renegade province, and has threatened to invade Taiwan and rule it unless Taiwan submits to rule by Beijing, and soon.

But Barfield believes China also is expecting that its relations with Taiwan may improve, now that a more friendly administration has taken over in Taipei.

Rather than facing Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian, who edged toward a pro-independence stance, China has watched as an election on the island produced a victory for the opposition Kuomintang Party, and Ma Ying-jeou was inaugurated as president. He favors improved relations with Beijing.

To read Barfield’s reasoning on the Taiwanese free trade agreement issue, please go to www.aei.org on the Web.