Washington on the eve of today’s presidential and legislative elections in Taiwan reiterated its opposition to foreign interference and confidence in the nation’s democratic process.
The US has been clear in its opposition to foreign interference or malign influence on Taiwan’s elections, US Department of State Deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told a daily briefing in Washington on Thursday.
Washington has full confidence in Taiwan’s democratic process, he added.
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A White House official on Wednesday announced that an unofficial delegation of former senior officials would visit Taiwan after the elections.
Asked about the visit during a telephone briefing on Thursday, an anonymous US senior official said that meeting face-to-face is the best method of communication, and would help maintain peace and stability.
US policy toward Taiwan would not change, regardless of the presidential election outcome, they added.
The official declined to speculate on potential Chinese reactions to the vote, saying only that elections are a regular part of the democratic process, and Beijing would be the provocateur if it responds with added aggression.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was scheduled to meet Liu Jianchao (劉建超), head of the Chinese Communist Party’s international department, in Washington yesterday, the State Department said.
The schedule did not give details about the 10am meeting, but it was to be the latest in a flurry of US-China interactions following a November summit between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in San Francisco.
Those include a Wednesday meeting between Liu and White House Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer, a phone call on Thursday between US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao (王文濤), and the resumption this week of long-frozen military talks.
The meetings appear aimed in part at insulating the US-China relationship from the kind of friction that typically results from elections in Taiwan.
In other news, in a congratulatory call to newly appointed South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Tae-yul on Thursday, Blinken and Cho agreed to continue working together to support peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, the State Department said.
In Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday thanked the two nations for reiterating their support for peace in the Strait, only the latest in a number of similar statements over the past year.
Tokyo yesterday also weighed in on the elections, with Japanese Minister of Defense Minoru Kihara saying that the Japanese military would keep a close watch on Chinese military activity near Taiwan, JIji Press reported.
Additional reporting by CNA
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