US lawmakers are planning to visit Taiwan to show support for president-elect William Lai (賴清德), as well as potentially meet with members of opposition parties, the Nikkei Asia reported on Sunday.
The Financial Times on Friday reported that US representatives Ami Bera, Andy Barr and Mario Diaz-Balart are to visit Taiwan in the coming weeks.
The delegation is to congratulate Lai on leading the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to a third consecutive presidential term “and continue to emphasize that the future of Taiwan really is up to the people of Taiwan,” the Nikkei Asia cited Bera as saying in an interview on Friday, adding that “the visit will demonstrate US support for [the] island’s democracy.”
Photo: Reuters
While the Financial Times said the congressional delegation would not meet with the other two candidates that ran in the presidential election — New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) — the Nikkei Asia said that the delegation plans to meet with senior members of the two parties.
“I would expect us to have meetings with all parties,” Bera said. “It’s a parliamentary system, so we should be talking to all legislators.”
The cochair of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus said “there probably aren’t deep relations” with the TPP, hinting at the need for the US Congress to forge stronger ties with the party to bolster cooperation between Washington and Taipei, the Japanese weekly news magazine said.
The intention to deepen congressional ties with the TPP “reflects the future political landscape in Taiwan,” it said, referring to the first Legislative Yuan since 2004 in which no party holds an absolute majority.
“This could lead to a deadlock, as the DPP is unlikely to cooperate with the KMT,” it said.
In the Jan. 13 legislative elections, the DPP secured 51 of the 113 seats in legislature, the KMT 52 and the TPP eight. Another two seats were won by independents aligned with the KMT.
Although the TPP only holds eight seats in the legislature, it “will play a decisive role in forming a coalition to lead the legislature,” the Center for Strategic and International Studies wrote in a report published on Friday.
The DPP losing its legislative majority “will significantly complicate Lai’s ability to push forward a DPP agenda during his presidency,” the report said.
“It is extremely important for members of [the US] Congress to engage with Taiwan’s opposition parties, both the KMT and the TPP,” the Nikkei Asia quoted German Marshall Fund Indo-Pacific Program managing director Bonnie Glaser as saying.
To advance security policies such as increasing defense spending and weapons purchases, the support of both parties “is essential,” she said.
Patrick Cronin, the Asia-Pacific security chair at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, called on the delegation to build close ties “with influential legislators from all three parties,” as they all “play a role in legislation,” it said.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
RSS