The US did not let Taiwan become a bargaining chip, former US National Security Council senior director for Asian affairs Evan Medeiros said in an interview in the US.
“We protected Taiwan and by protecting Taiwan it allows us to have enormous accomplishments,” said Medeiros, who arrived in Taiwan on Wednesday and is to leave today.
The achievements of US President Barack Obama’s administration regarding Taiwan-US relations will hopefully be taken to heart, especially in light of the difficult times facing the relationship due to changes introduced by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and US president-elect Donald Trump, Medeiros said in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper).
Photo courtesy of Evan Medeiros
Issues regarding Taiwan have been difficult and politically sensitive since 1979, Medeiros said, adding that the key concept on the issue has been whether one has a strategic view and that the implementation of such views was not led by Beijing.
“The Obama administration did not let Beijing manipulate us, but rather we have a very clear vision and systematically pursue it,” Medeiros said.
The Taiwan-US relationship has flourished in economic, diplomatic and military terms, Medeiros said, adding that under the Obama administration’s “reconceptualizing” and “reinstitutionalizing,” high-ranking officials from Taiwan and the US were able to communicate with each other frequently.
As a result of these ties, Taiwan was included in the US’ visa waiver program and has become increasingly active in global affairs, while the US stepped up arms sales to Taiwan and reinforced military interaction, Medeiros said, adding that while many of these improvements were incremental and gradual, they were still considerable when taken all together.
If you want to know the true stakeholder in Northeast Asia, it is Taiwan, Medeiros said, adding that he wanted to thank the administration of former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for its contributions to regional and global security and being “a true partner of the US.”
While Medeiros left the White House in 2015 following a visit by Tsai — who at the time was the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate — he said his understanding was that the quality of communication and cooperation between the Tsai and Obama administrations continued unabated from Ma’s time in office.
What changed was the cross-strait environment, but the US’ commitments to Taiwan remain resolute and clear, Medeiros said.
“We are in a time of uncertainty and Taiwan should disperse political, economical and national security risks,” he said.
The “new southbound policy” launched by the Tsai administration is on a correct path, but it is not easy, Medeiros said, but added that Taiwanese corporations and people have proven to be resilient and adaptive in the face of adversity.
Mederios is working for the Eurasia Group as its managing director for Asia and spoke at the Taiwan Stock Exchange and to members of the Republic of China Bankers’ Association.
Taiwan needs to address its over-reliance on China, either by making new investments in Southeast Asia or by stepping up investments in the US and the EU, he said, adding that a clear view on the political situation is as important as scrutinizing economic indices.
Regarding Taiwan-US economic relations, the Obama administration had successfully created “a framework to manage beef and pork issues, so the relationship could grow,” and we will not miss seeing the forest for the trees, he said.
Taiwan is still the key to resolve these issues so that economic relations can continue to grow, Medeiros said.
However, Taiwan does not present a friendly environment for foreign investors, he said, adding that throughout Obama’s term he encouraged Taiwan to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership and to sign bilateral free-trade agreements with New Zealand and Singapore.
Medeiros said that a free-trade agreement could be signed between Taiwan and the US if the policies of the Trump administration allowed it, but added that there would be no restrictions for Taiwanese corporate investments in the US.
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