American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman James Moriarty met with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫堃) on Thursday last week.
When You raised the question of re-establishing diplomatic relations between Taiwan and the US, Moriarty said that “the two countries” share common values and interests, and that “the two countries” have open and transparent market mechanisms.
Moriarty’s reference to Taiwan and the US as “two countries” was an indirect response to You’s question and an extension of his own remarks at the start of his meeting with Tsai, when he said: “I look forward to discussing the next chapter of US-Taiwan cooperation with President Tsai.”
This is a big change of direction by Moriarty.
When Moriarty arrived on Dec. 1, 2003, as the envoy of then-US president George W. Bush, he urged then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to cancel a referendum regarding Taiwan’s relations with China to avoid angering Beijing.
When he came to Taiwan again in December 2017, his purpose, according to former US deputy national security adviser Stephen Yates, was to keep an eye on proposed amendments to the Referendum Act (公投法) and stop them from being enacted.
Given this background, it is remarkable that he is now speaking openly about Taiwan and the US being two countries, with no concern about angering China.
On Feb. 13, You told AIT Director Brent Christensen that he hoped Taiwan and the US could establish diplomatic relations, but Christensen did not dare to reply.
The next day, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) accused You of using the COVID-19 outbreak as a cover for promoting Taiwanese independence.
You responded with a Facebook post thanking TAO spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) for raising his international profile, so that more attention would be paid to his efforts to promote diplomatic relations between Taiwan and the US.
Four days later, You received a letter from an 88-year-old former Nationalist Army soldier that threatened You and his family; the same writer threatened You at the beginning of this month, warning him not to promote Taiwan-US diplomatic ties.
You has scored this step forward in parliamentary diplomacy after being legislative speaker for just over a month.
It is ridiculous that his achievement should be obscured by a tide of silly reports about something he said about police patrol boxes.
[Editor’s note: You on Thursday last week said that the police patrol box next to his residence was empty, implying that officers had not been patrolling the neighborhood or checking the box.]
Sim Kiantek is a former associate professor of business administration at National Chung Hsing University.
Translated by Julian Clegg
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not
RSS