BY TERRY JOYCE
Of The Post and Courier Staff
David T. Lee, an economic and cultural representative of the government of Taiwan, apparently made an unheralded visit to the former Charleston Naval Shipyard Friday to look at one of the old U.S. Navy destroyers that Detyens Shipyards is preparing for the Taiwanese Navy.
Lee's visit wasn't officially disclosed and no one among Detyens' senior executives or Lee's office in Washington, D.C., returned phone calls from The Post and Courier asking for comments.
Lt. Mike Benton of the Charleston County sheriff's office said deputies provided a police escort for a man he identified as "Mr. Lee" from the Taiwanese embassy in Washington. Deputies escorted Lee's vehicle from the Georgetown County line to the shipyard, he said.
Benton said he thought Lee was the ambassador from Taiwan, but Taiwan has had no ambassador to this country since 1979, when the United States pulled its embassy from Taipei and established relations with the People's Republic of China. A Web site describes Lee as a representative for the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office for Taiwan in the United States.
Despite a lack of diplomatic relations, the U.S. government in 2001 agreed to sell to Taiwan four U.S. Navy destroyers that had previously been decommissioned.
The sale drew a sharp protest from the government on mainland China.
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