US urges talks between mainland China and Taiwan amid uncertainty after election

The administration of US President Barack Obama said on Thursday it is urging mainland China and Taiwan to maintain dialogue amid concerns that the election of an independence-leaning party on the island could heighten tensions in one of Asia’s security hotspots.

A US House of Representatives foreign affairs panel on Asia examined the implications for Washington of the January election, which has throws new uncertainty over the relationship between democratic Taiwan and the communist mainland, which claims the island as its own territory, to be recovered by force if necessary.

The US is Taiwan’s most important ally and the source of defensive arms, but it has applauded the easing of cross-Strait relations under the outgoing Nationalist government, which fostered economic cooperation with China.

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Senior State Department official Susan Thornton said the US had called on Beijing to show restraint and flexibility in working with Taiwan’s new administration under Tsai Ing-wen’s Democratic Progressive Party, which takes office in May.

She said Tsai understood her obligations to pursue a policy to enable cross-strait stability, and Beijing said it would look to see what Tsai proposed.

Thorton said she was hopeful the two sides could come up with a basis for continuing exchanges. “I think there is a will on both sides to do so,” Thornton told the panel.

Mainland China is demanding that Tsai, like her predecessor, agrees that the mainland and Taiwan are part of a single Chinese nation. Tsai has refused to endorse Beijing’s “one China principle”, but has not publicly rejected it either.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers were critical of Beijing’s attitude.