The US is likely to further pressure Taiwan to return to the negotiating table with China after its new president is sworn into office, a Mainland Affairs Council official said yesterday.
Cross-strait relations will remain stable in the period before the new US president is inaugurated, but the "dialogue pressure" will increase after the president takes office, whereupon more concrete US policies towards the issue of cross-strait relations will begin, said Chen Ming-tung (
Chen was speaking at a hearing hosted by People First Party Legislator Chou Si-wei (
Chen noted that although the US presidential election has so far been "too close to call" and that it may take as many as 10 more days before the results are confirmed, he said he personally believes that Republican candidate George W. Bush is going to win the race on the grounds that most overseas voters from the state of Florida are supporters of the Republican Party.
The final result of the election now hinges on the outcome of the vote recount in Florida.
He added that a climate of "strategic clarity" in Taipei-Beijing-Washington relations has gradually developed to replace "strategic ambiguity" that has been favored by both Taiwan and the US in the past.
He said US policy towards Taiwan will probably not undergo any obvious changes within the next six months even if George W. Bush is elected, despite his party's pro-Taiwan election platform.
Chen predicted that China's influence in the area of cross-strait relations would increase if Bush wins, due to the fact that behind the Republic Party are many influential US businessmen who have an interest in maintaining good trade relations with China, particularly as China is likely to join the WTO soon.
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