Friday’s telephone call between President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and US president-elect Donald Trump marked significant progress in Taiwan-US relations, Taiwan’s Representative to the US Stanley Kao (高碩泰) said on Saturday.
Kao said at a gathering in New York for US-based Taiwanese groups that Taiwan-US relations have achieved great progress in various areas and that Taiwan’s representative office in the US hopes to continue promoting reciprocal ties with Washington on the basis of the US’ Taiwan Relations Act, the “six assurances” and mutual trust.
The Taiwanese community in the US also viewed the call positively.
Photo: CNA
Jerry Shiao (蕭貴源), president of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of New York, said the conversation shows the importance Trump attaches to Taiwan and Taiwan-US relations, adding that he hopes the US will continue to help Taiwan defend itself and two-way trade between Taiwan and the US will continue to grow.
Lauding Trump as a shrewd businessman, Shiao said that the call would help improve relations on many fronts and promote friendship between both nations.
The US is Taiwan’s most powerful ally and the conversation has laid a solid foundation for the development of Taiwan-US relations and bilateral cooperation, he added.
Former minister of foreign affairs Mark Chen (陳唐山) said in Taipei that the call is “a good beginning” for Taiwan’s relationship with the Trump administration.
Many in Taiwan had been incorrectly pessimistic about Taiwan-US relations during Trump’s term, but those opinions are the result of failing to assess Trump accurately as a politician who acts in ways that breaks with convention, said Chen, who served under former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
Trump is approaching Taiwan-US ties from the perspective of a businessman, who finds nothing wrong with taking a call from a client of US arms sales, Mark Chen said.
Although heavy opposition to the call is “inevitable,” Taiwan should seize this opportunity to convince Trump that he has “made the right choice” and tell him that “Taiwan is distinct from China,” Mark Chen said, adding that finding common interests between Taiwan and the US and establishing a friendly pattern of interaction before Trump takes office would be “highly beneficial to Taiwan.”
Since Trump favors bilateral trade agreements over multilateral free-trade agreements, Taiwan should emphasize the importance and mutually beneficial nature of the Taiwan-US trade relationship, which could serve as the “first steps to high-level interactions and visits between the two nations,” he added.
Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) said that the call demonstrated that Taiwan-US relations are robust and supported by both parties and that he looks forward to the further development of the relationship, adding that friendly interactions with the US improves Taiwan’s international visibility and chances of participating in global affairs.
Additional reporting by Chou Ming-hung
Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has died of pneumonia at the age of 48 while on a trip to Japan, where she contracted influenza during the Lunar New Year holiday, her sister confirmed today through an agent. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) said. "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other. I will always be grateful to
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
TAIWAN DEFENSE: The initiative would involve integrating various systems in a fast-paced manner through the use of common software to obstruct a Chinese invasion The first tranche of the US Navy’s “Replicator” initiative aimed at obstructing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be ready by August, a US Naval Institute (USNI) News report on Tuesday said. The initiative is part of a larger defense strategy for Taiwan, and would involve launching thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation and its partners time to assemble a response. The plan was first made public by the Washington Post in June last year, when it cited comments by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue
RSS