Despite the loss of some giants whose support Taiwan relied on for a solid congressional backbone, the US Congress will remain as strongly pro-Taiwan, if not more so, when it reconvenes next January, Washington observers say.
The vast majority of Taiwan's best friends in Congress easily won reelection and some new pro-Taipei members may more than offset the losses, they say.
"I'm going to sleep like a baby tonight," said Coen Blaauw, the executive director of the Formosan Association of Public Affairs (FAPA), just before the polls closed.
The surprising Republican takeover of the Senate is likely to work in Taiwan's favor, especially in view of the Bush administration's favorable policy toward Taipei.
"The administration will have more flexibility with a Republican Senate than without one," notes John Tkacik, Asian research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
"If the administration is pro-Taiwan and has a Republican Senate, that enhances the administration's broader foreign policy, of which Taiwan is a part," Tkacik said.
The switch will also mean a sweeping shift in power of Senate committees. In the Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Richard Lugar is expected to be named chairman, replacing Joseph Biden, who was definitely cool to Taiwan issues.
While Lugar is not as supportive of Taiwan as Jesse Helms, who held the chairmanship until the summer of 2001, Lugar is "better than Biden," one observer noted.
Lugar is described by one congressional observer as "reasonably pro-Taiwan, not a fervent anti-Communist."
In the House, the four co-chairmen of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus, which was formed last spring, all won re-election. Virtually all of the caucus' 117 members who sought reelection won.
Benjamin Gilman, who long championed Taiwan causes as chairman of the House International Relations Committee, decided not to seek reelection, as did Helms.
Other losses include Frank Murkowski of Alaska, who ran for governor of his state and won, and Democrat Robert Torricelli, who retired from the Senate.
Nevertheless, Congress will remain solidly supportive of Taiwan issues, said Blaauw.
"I think there is unanimous support for Taiwan in both houses," he said.
However, he and other supporters of Taiwan are looking for something more.
"We are looking at people who are willing to go the extra mile for Taiwan," he says.
Among the pluses, Blaauw says, are the likely elevation of Republican Dana Rohrabacher to the chairmanship of the House International Affairs Committee subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific. Rohrabacher is the "prima donna in US-Taiwan relations," Blaauw says.
Committee chairman Jim Leach is expected to take over the Middle East subcommittee from Gilman.
The election of Elizabeth Dole to replace Helms in the Senate represented a potentially important advance for Taiwan's interests.
Dole's husband, former Senate leader Bob Dole, is one of Taiwan's leading advocates in Washington, having become the top lobbyist for the Taipei Economic and Cultural Relations Office after his 1996 presidential defeat.
It is expected that his wife will maintain that allegiance. It will also continue what one observer called the "Traditional Helms-Dole North Carolina commitment to Taiwan."
Also cheering the Taiwan camp were the easy reelection of such earlier uncertainties as Taiwan-born Oregon Democrat David Wu, and Ohio Democrat Sherwood Brown, the author of annual resolutions pledging US support for Taiwan's role in the World Health Organization.
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