But the issue may be less a matter of lawbreaking than of Kelly's fitness for his job with the Bush administration. In his role as assistant secretary of state, Kelly is now responsible for America's diplomatic relations with both those countries -- as well as relations with Taiwan's arch-rival, the People's Republic of China.

"What's most disturbing," says Clemons, "is that it's a lesson to the Japanese that our rhetoric about transparency is a lot of hot air, that our system is just as embedded in mutual obligation, greasing the wheel, and international nepotism. It lowers our moral edge and raises questions about Jim Kelly's judgment."

The other documents raise intriguing -- if less clear -- questions about the roles played by other U.S. political figures. In documents published in the China Times and Hong Kong's Sing Tao Daily, Carl W. Ford, who is now assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research, is described as a recipient of payments from the NSB in 1999 and 2000. It was already known that when Ford was a consultant to the Washington firm Cassidy & Associates he had worked as a lobbyist for the Taiwan Research Institute, a Taiwanese think tank closely associated with President Lee. At the time, Ford did register as a foreign agent as required under American law. Ford declined comment for this story.

But NSB documents show that the money Ford received actually came from the secret accounts controlled by the NSB. Ford was entertained during visits to Taiwan with money from the NSB secret accounts, and actually visited NSB headquarters on March 20, 2000, to discuss Taiwan's relations with China and his efforts to secure arms sales to Taiwan. According to Hong Kong IMail -- the English-language sister publication of Sing Tao -- a Taiwanese liaison assigned to work with Ford's firm told President Lee at a briefing in December 1999 that "Cassidy & Associates regarded George W. Bush, Texas governor at the time, as the best candidate in the presidential race and that his lobbying outfit intended to recruit some of Bush's friends."

Another set of documents describe how, in 1994, Lee organized a "task force" charged with cultivating foreign elected officials and deepening defense contacts with Japan and the United States. Members of the task force included Lee, Peng, various members of the Taiwanese government and several high-ranking Japanese politicians and military leaders. But the names of Wolfowitz, then a dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, and Kurt Campbell, a deputy assistant secretary of defense in the Clinton administration, also appear on the list as members of the task force.

When the NSB documents first surfaced more than two weeks ago it was widely assumed that they had been leaked by a rogue Taiwanese intelligence agent. Since then, however, many have come to believe that the leaks may be tied to infighting between the country's two main political factions and their disagreements over the country's relationship with the United States and China. In particular, observers say, the release of the documents may be an effort to send a warning to the government, which supports independence from China, and its supporters in the Bush administration who have pressed in recent months for closer military ties to the island.

The leaks, says Asia policy expert Chalmers Johnson, appear to be a way of "reining in the Bush administration. This is a way -- without crossing them or in any way damaging future ties -- of causing them to pull back. This is a way of saying to the Americans, 'Back off. Your policies are far too extreme for what's going on in the world today. And we are not particularly worried about a Chinese military assault against the island.'"

Whatever the reasons for document leaks, the Bush administration has not felt the need to address them, and they have received little attention except small rumbles in the left-wing U.S. media.

Recent Stories