The administration of US President Donald Trump should welcome President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) commitment to maintaining the “status quo” across the Taiwan Strait, a report released in Washington on Tuesday said.
The report, US policy toward China: Recommendations for a new administration, was authored by a bipartisan task force comprising prominent China specialists and issued by the Asia Society’s Center on US-China Relations and the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego.
The report said Taiwan has a long history as a “central, volatile and potentially dangerous element” in US-China relations and it urged the Trump administration to make significant changes in foreign policy only after a careful analysis of the potential consequences.
It suggested that the Trump administration’s policy regarding Taiwan should “seek to establish an active and principled position from the outset,” beginning with maintaining Washington’s “one China” policy, while declaring its support for the three US-China communiques and the Taiwan Relations Act as its guiding pillars.
“The Trump administration also should reiterate the longstanding US position that it will not challenge any future arrangement between Taiwan and the mainland [China] as long as it is arrived at amicably by the consent of the people on both sides without intimidation or coercion,” the report said.
However, the US must reiterate its strong interest in maintaining stability across the Taiwan Strait, as well as its support for cross-strait dialogue and exchanges, it said.
“To this end, the new administration should welcome Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s commitment to maintaining the status quo across the Taiwan Strait, but it should not take any position on the specific phrases characterizing the long-term cross-strait situation that Beijing endlessly demands from Taipei,” the report said.
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