Next year’s presidential election is to take place in less than 100 days. American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chair Laura Rosenberger arrived in Taiwan on Oct. 15. She has visited Taiwan three times within 210 days of becoming the AIT chair earlier in March.
Rosenberger’s first visit was in mid-April and the second in early June. When President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Vice President William Lai (賴清德) stopped over in the US, Rosenberger received both of them at the airport and accompanied them. In other words, Rosenberger and Taiwan’s leaders have met with one another approximately once every two months.
Compared with former AIT chair James Moriarty, Rosenberger comes to Taiwan much more often. This suggests that the US-Taiwan relations has become unprecedentedly intimate, and the two countries have formed an alliance stronger than ever. When Moriarty took over the position of AIT chair in early October of 2016, he visited Taipei by the end of the same month for the first time. Not until late April in 2017 did his second visit take place. He visited Taiwan for the third time after eight months in December 2017. Unlike Rosenberger, it took Moriarty around 400 days to visit Taiwan three times.
Both Moriarty and Rosenberger used to be the US presidents’ special assistants as well as the US National Security Council’s senior directors for China and Taiwan. In terms of their official ranks, they are quite similar, but the timings at which Moriarty and Rosenberger assumed those official positions show how different they are. After Moriarty’s tenure at the White House, he was appointed as US ambassador to Nepal. In June 2011, his diplomatic career came to an end as he retired from his position as US ambassador to Bangladesh. Afterward, he resumed his diplomatic career and became the chair of AIT, and retired again after six and a half years.
Rosenberger is quite different. She is in her prime, which means that her diplomatic career should not end as an AIT chair. She has also worked with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for years. When Blinken was US deputy national security adviser under then-US president Barack Obama, Rosenberger was his senior adviser. When Blinken became the secretary of state, Rosenberger became his chief of staff. Before long, she was appointed by Blinken to move from the US National Security Council to the AIT. The main purpose was to establish communication channels and facilitate dialogue among high-level officials in Taiwan, the White House and the US State Department.
US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) are set to meet at the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in San Francisco. At this point, Rosenberger was ordered to visit Taiwan for a special purpose. As soon as she left Taiwan, the Presidential Office immediately announced that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) will be attending next month’s APEC summit. When Rosenberger met with Tsai, she emphasized that it is Washington’s priority to consolidate Taiwan’s status in the world, and it is an important gesture from the US to comfort all 23 million Taiwanese. Although Tsai is not expected to have a chance to publicly meet with Biden and Xi, and Taiwan has been treated unfairly, the US has demonstrated its commitment to make it up to Taiwan. It is clear that the Biden administration uses other means to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait while affirming Taiwan’s importance in the international community.
Chen Yung-chang is a company manager.
Translated by Emma Liu
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