Representative to the US Alexander Yui has a message for China and the US: Do not worry that president-elect William Lai (賴清德) would worsen relations with Beijing and possibly draw the US into a conflict.
Lai plans to keep the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, Yui told The Associated Press (AP) on Thursday in his first interview with an international news organization since he arrived in the US last month.
Yui said that Lai is willing to engage with Beijing, even as the nation seeks to bolster its ties with Washington for stability in the region.
Photo: AP
“We want the status quo. We want the way it is — neither unification, neither independence. The way it is is the way we want to live right now,” Yui said, adding that the stance is largely supported at home and would guide the new administration.
Yui spoke five days after Lai won the presidential election with more than 40 percent of the vote in a three-way race. Lai is to succeed President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) when he is inaugurated in May.
His victory, which gives the Democratic Progressive Party an unprecedented third presidential term, was not welcomed by Beijing.
Beijing refused to have any dialogue with Tsai and before the election had suggested to voters that they could be choosing between “war and peace.”
It remains unclear if Beijing would be willing to engage with Lai, who has described himself as a “pragmatic worker of Taiwan’s independence.”
Yui said that Lai intends to follow the same line as his predecessor, “but also to offer an olive branch to ... China by saying that he’s also willing to engage.”
At the same time, Taiwan would work with the US to boost its defense and deepen economic and cultural ties, Yui said, calling ties with Washington “one of the most important aspects in our foreign affairs.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has told US President Joe Biden that Taiwan is the most sensitive issue in US-China relations.
Shortly after the elections, Biden told reporters that his administration does not support Taiwan’s independence.
Scott Kennedy, senior adviser and trustee chair in Chinese business and economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, said he expected tensions to remain largely the same under Lai.
“Beijing will continue to develop its military capabilities, and push the boundaries of military threats and economic coercion,” Kennedy said. “The US will continue to assist Taiwan with its defensive preparedness and push Taiwan to move more assertively on the various elements needed for effective self-defense.”
However, Kennedy said that Beijing might also open up some channels for the two sides to convey messages and reduce misunderstanding.
Yui said it is incumbent upon Taipei and Beijing to keep the Taiwan Strait peaceful.
“I have to stress, we’re not the aggressors. We’re not the ones, you know, making waves in the Taiwan Strait, making things nervous and tense,” he said.
Taiwan is determined to safeguard its homeland, he said, adding that the nation is increasing its defense budget and has extended the mandatory military service from four months to one year.
Beijing’s luring away of Nauru as a formal diplomatic ally of Taiwan was an attempt to punish Taiwanese for choosing the leader they wanted and would only backfire, Yui said.
“They were just trying to find an appropriate time and excuse to slowly pluck all of our allies,” he said.
However, as a technological powerhouse and a democracy, Taiwan has “become a common word in the international community” and countries around the world have become more willing to engage with it, he added.
Yui, who met with US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson shortly before the elections, said he has been encouraged by the support from members of the Republican and Democratic parties.
“If you go to the US Congress, your heart warms up, because everywhere you go you meet friends,” he said.
US Senator Ben Cardin, who chairs the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called Taiwan “a key US partner in the Indo-Pacific and beyond” and said that he would be “working closely with the newly elected leadership of Taiwan to deepen our economic, security and people-to-people ties.”
Yui, who was born to a diplomat’s family, attended high school in Panama and received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Texas A&M University.
He previously served as Taiwan’s ambassador to Paraguay and as its vice foreign minister.
Before he was assigned to Washington, Yui briefly served as Taiwan’s representative to the EU and Belgium.
He succeeded Hsiao Bi-Khim (蕭美琴), who left the post in November to be Lai’s running mate.
Hsiao, who is credited with deepening Taiwan-US ties while heading the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington from 2020 to last year, is to be the next vice president.
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