TAIWAN ENVOY SAYS HIS DISMISSAL UNFAIR.

Byline: George Gedda Associated Press 

On his last day in office, Secretary of State Warren Christopher dismissed James Wood, an Arkansas Democrat, as chief U.S. representative for Taiwan just 13 months after he took office.

Wood said he was given 90 minutes to draft a resignation letter and, to emphasize the depth of his fall from favor, locks to his office were changed immediately afterward.

On Sunday, an embittered, indignant Wood stood before reporters and pronounced his career in ruins, partly the result of what he said were false accusations that he used his position to solicit contributions for President Clinton's re-election campaign.

Expanding on a statement he faxed to news organizations Saturday, Wood said he was victimized by efforts to detail corruption and fraud that occurred at the office before he was named to head it.

Beyond this ``horrific taxpayer rip-off,'' he said, were ``the worst sort of inhumane sex scandals'' in which visa-seeking Taiwanese women were forced to have sex with a visa office employee or have their visa requests denied. He did not name the employee.

Far from fulfilling his high hopes of furthering U.S. interests on the island when he took office, Wood said he ``wound up in a mess less appetizing than a dog's breakfast.''

Wood's official title was chairman of the board and managing director of the American Institute on Taiwan. The institute was established in 1979 after the United States ended formal ties with the Nationalist China government on Taiwan and opened diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China.

With offices in suburban Virginia, Wood directed U.S. relations with Taiwan, often traveling to the island for consultations.

State Department officials, asking for anonymity, said they understood that Wood took documents with him when he left the institute to bolster his contention that he wanted to end corruption there.

At the news conference, Wood said he was angered about news reports in recent months suggesting that he had solicited contributions for President Clinton's re-election campaign from Taiwanese business interests.

Such allegations are outrageous, Wood said, but he acknowledged that he occasionally reminded business people on Taiwan of the island's dependence on the United States for its security.

State Department officials said the department's inspector general referred the allegations of campaign solicitation to the Justice Department some time ago.

Wood said the corrupt practices he described were begun by his predecessor, Natale Bellocchi. Efforts to reach Bellocchi at his suburban Washington home on Sunday were unsuccessful.