The Democratic Party's control of the US Senate, which was clinched when the Senate's Taiwan Caucus co-chairman George Allen of Virginia conceded defeat in his re-election bid, is expected to be a mixed bag for Taiwan, in contrast to the gains Taiwan can expect from the landslide Democratic capture of the House of Representatives.
With Allen's concession, along with the concession of Montana Republican Conrad Burns, the Democrats gained six seats in the Senate, giving them a 51-49 edge over the Republicans, their first majority in that chamber in four years.
How that will affect Taiwan's legislative fortunes is still unclear.
Traditionally, the Senate has been averse to passing narrowly tailored legislation such as those that are generally introduced in Congress affecting Taiwan, dealing with such issues as military cooperation, Taiwan participation in the WHO, high-level visits by Taiwanese officials to Washington and the US' "one-China" policy.
In that regard, both Republican and Democratic Senators often seemed to agree with each other, in a chamber that sees itself as a deliberative body, in contrast to the House, where passions run high and more extreme issues gain legislative traction.
Taiwan supporters are looking at Nevada Senator Harry Reid, now the minority leader and in line to become the majority leader, to give Taiwan more time than did the current leader,
While Reid's main strength is in domestic issues, he has spoken out strongly in favor of Taiwan in the past.
Speaking in favor of Taiwan's participation in the WHO during the SARS pandemic in 2003, Reid praised President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
"Under President Chen's strong leadership, Taiwan has remained true to its democratic value and has continued to be a model for its neighbors in the region," he said on the Senate floor. "The WHO's refusal to grant membership or even observer status to Taiwan has ... placed the health of all 23 million Taiwanese in jeopardy."
Last year, as Bush was en route to the APEC summit in South Korea, Reid, in a letter, called Bush's China policies "ad hoc, inconsistent and essentially aimless," adding that "China's non-democratic government has taken actions and pursued policies that understandably stoke concerns and fears in America."
Taiwan is expected to fare less well in the Foreign Relations Committee, where Democratic Senator Joseph Biden will take over the chairmanship. Biden is known for a pro-China stance and for not particularly liking Taiwan.
Although Biden has said in the past that he is one of the remaining congressman who voted for the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) in 1979, and still agreed with that decision, his backing for Taiwan is limited.
While he has said that he supports the TRA policy that "retain[s] the right to use force to defend Tai-wan," he is a supporter of the Clintonian policy of "strategic ambiguity," which withholds a firm commitment to defend Taiwan militarily, and was sharply critical of President Bush's statement in a television interview in 2001 that he would do "whatever it took" to help defend Taiwan if China launched a military attack.
He also berated UN Ambassador John Bolton during earlier hearings on Bolton's nomination to a senior State Department post in 2001 for Bolton's earlier private writings in support of Taiwanese independence and membership in the UN.
Nevertheless, even under Republican Senator Richard Lugar the committee has in recent years largely disregarded Taiwan interests, so the balance may not change much with Biden in charge.
However, in contrast to the past two years, in which the committee has "withered away," according to one Taiwan lobbyist, the panel will now focus more on China, and that should help Taiwan's interests.
In the Senate Armed Services Committee, which under both Democrats and Republicans bills favoring closer military ties between Washington and Taipei have been thrown out as a matter of course, and where both Chairman John Warner and his Democratic counterpart Carl Levin see eye-to-eye on Taiwan legislation, the shift to Democrat from Republican will not mean much.
However, Taiwan supporters note that Levin has been more favorably disposed to Taiwan than Warner, who threatened Taiwan with the loss of US commitment to come to the island's military defense if China attacks, in a statement following Chen's decision to mothball the workings of the National Unification Council early this year.
A big plus for Taiwan, its lobbyists feel, is the victory of former Congressional Taiwan Caucus co-chair, representative Sherrod Brown of Ohio, to a Senate seat. Brown could give a boost to the Senate caucus, which was largely inactive under Allen.
Democratic co-chair Ti Johnson will have a greater role in guiding the bipartisan caucus now, but Brown could become an important member.
Taiwan supporters might even push for Brown to get a seat on the Foreign Relations Committee, taking the position now occupied by Maryland Democrat Paul Sarbanes, who is retiring.
Replacing Allen as the Republican co-chair of the Senate caucus could be John Kyl of Arizona, one of Taiwan's biggest boosters in the Senate, who holds the powerful post of Republican Policy Committee chairman. Kyl is already a member of the 25-man caucus.
Replacing Brown as one of the four House caucus co-chairs could be Democratic Representative Robert Andrews, a vocal defender of Taiwan's interest, especially in seeking to get a US-Taiwan Free Trade Agreement.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching