A top Washington official is predicting that this will be a good year for US-Taiwan relations.
US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Danny Russel stressed the importance of peaceful cross-strait relations.
He told a special briefing for the foreign press in Washington on Wednesday that under the administration of US President Barack Obama, “progress” in cross-strait relations had made US-Taiwan relations “productive.”
“It’s something we support and welcome,” he said. “There is strong support in the US — on both sides of the aisle in Congress — for our continuing efforts to help ensure that Taiwan can preserve its autonomy and manage its defense.”
He said there were strong people-to-people connections as well as thriving trade, economic and cultural ties between the US and Taiwan.
Russel said there was also strong support in Washington for Taiwan gaining appropriate “international space” to maintain Taiwan’s regional and global contributions.
He said that it was his experience that just as there was strong bipartisan support in the US for good cooperative relations there was similar bipartisan support in Taiwan.
Russel said that this year would be an important political year in Taiwan leading up to the presidential elections.
“We don’t take a position on electoral issues outside our own borders,” he said.
However, the US maintained “lines of communication” to both the ruling party and to the opposition party, he said, adding that “we will stay in touch and maintain strong unofficial ties [and] wait for the people of Taiwan to make a decision about their own leaders.”
There was considerable controversy in the past about the US appearing to interfere in Taiwan’s presidential politics by supporting the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Shortly before the last presidential election, an unnamed member of the White House national security staff told the Financial Times that the US had doubts about Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson and then-presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
“She left us with distinct doubts about whether she is both willing and able to continue the stability in cross-strait relations the region has enjoyed in recent years,” the official said.
The comment was widely interpreted as an attempt to damage Tsai and provide a boost to the KMT.
Russel seemed to be signaling that nothing of the sort would happen again.
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