U.S. Election Stalemate: Tsai: Will Deepen Cooperation with New U.S. President

The U.S. presidential election has not yet completed all the vote counting. Taiwan remains highly concerned about the results of the election. Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said Wednesday that she respects the final choice of the American people, and that no matter which political party is in power in the United States, Taiwan has the responsibility to deepen cooperation with the U.S. government, and she will do her utmost to win the support of mainstream American public opinion for Taiwan.

The U.S. government will do its utmost to enlist the support of mainstream American public opinion.

The U.S. Congress has passed many Taiwan-friendly bills over the past period, such as the Taiwan Travel Act and the Asian Reassurance Initiative Act, and even before that, more than half of the Senate members wanted to promote the Taiwan-U.S. Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), which requires cross-party support from the U.S. These developments show that support for Taiwan is mainstream U.S. public opinion, Tsai said.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in an official news release Wednesday that it has been officially notified by the U.S. government that it will sell four MQ-9B drones to Taiwan, worth a total of $600 million, the 10th time during the Trump presidency and the third time in two weeks that the U.S. government has provided Taiwan with important defensive weapons.

On Wednesday, Tsai said that the renewed release of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan shows that Taiwan’s determination to strengthen its self-defense capabilities has bipartisan support in the United States. She stressed that this proves that Taiwan’s key position as a strategic front and a democratic front in the Indo-Pacific region will not change as a result of the U.S. election.

On Wednesday, KMT Chairman Chiang stressed that the bilateral relationship between Taiwan and the United States will not change fundamentally because of who wins the election, that the ROC must continue to seek cross-party understanding and support in the United States, and that it would be short-sighted to bet on either U.S. political party’s government; and that the KMT will continue to maintain relations with all sectors of the U.S. population regardless of which U.S. party is elected.

The U.S. election has sparked a debate in Taiwan about “betting on” the U.S. government. The opposition KMT criticized Tsai’s government for “betting” on President Trump. Former KMT Chairman Julius Chu has said that Taiwan cannot bet on one side, but the DPP’s approach is too obvious: “The DPP may have to make Taiwan bear the consequences of the election.”

In response, Taiwan Foreign Minister Wu Zhao-sub clarified that this is a false stereotype, and stressed that Taiwan-U.S. relations are only better, and that no matter who is elected U.S. president, Taiwan and the U.S. will maintain good relations.

Last week, Tsai also held a special high-level National Security meeting to discuss how to deepen Taiwan-U.S. and stabilize cross-strait relations. She said in the national security meeting that regardless of the election results, the primary goal of promoting U.S.-Taiwan relations is to continue to deepen relations with the U.S. Republicans and Democrats and to gain consistent cross-party support for Taiwan.

But KMT legislator Li Guimin said that Tsai Ing-wen stressed the importance of gaining cross-party support for the U.S. at the National Security Council meeting, but compared to the previous DPP and flanking organizations that bet on Trump with all their might, and cynically mocked Trump’s rival, former Vice President Biden, it was only at the last minute of the U.S. election that she attempted to mend fences.