Taipei keeps quiet about Trump’s one-China remarks
No official comment on incoming president saying the US doesn’t need to maintain its stance that Taiwan is part of China
A cautious Taiwanese government on Monday declined to comment on the politically explosive question by US president-elect Donald Trump about why Washington had to be bound by the one-China policy.
Both the Presidential Office and the foreign ministry in Taiwan were tight-lipped about Trump’s remarks. The Mainland Affairs Council, which is responsible for cross-strait affairs, simply reiterated the stance of the administration of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen that cross-strait and US-Taiwan ties are equally important.
Trump’s questioning, made on Sunday, sent political shock waves through the US and Taiwan, with the comments coming soon after he broke decades of diplomatic decorum by having a phone conversation with Tsai.
Watch: Trump questions continuing one-China policy
Media in Taiwan reported prominently about Trump’s remarks, saying that they could put Taiwan in a dangerous position between two feuding great powers. Lawmakers in both the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party and the main opposition Kuomintang remained relatively cautious.
“What Trump said could be a knife with two sharp blades,” said Lo Chih-cheng, a DPP legislator and the director of its international affairs. “For Trump, he could either accept the one-China policy or not, strictly depending on what he wants from Beijing.”
KMT legislator Johnny Chiang said Trump was taking a “strictly business” approach.
“He is using all the bargaining chips he has in an attempt to force the other side to talk about certain issues he wants to talk about,” Chiang said.
He added that in the short term, Taiwan might feel its importance had been increased, but that the island would eventually be hurt by the ensuing political and economic bargaining between Washington and Beijing.
However, Hsu Yung-ming, a legislator for the pro-independence New Power Party, said it was time for the Tsai government to decide if it should stick to its policy of maintaining the cross-strait status quo.
“The government should see this as a challenge and a new opportunity,” said Hsu, a former political science professor.
He said that with cross-strait ties deadlocked, the Tsai government should evaluate whether Trump means what he has hinted at – that he was ready to change the US relationship with Taiwan.
Tsai says she wants to maintain the cross-strait status quo, but has refused to formally accept the one-China principle that Beijing insists is the sole political basis for the two sides to continue exchanges and talks.
Tsai Ming-yen, a professor of international politics at National Chung Hsing University in Taiwan, said it remained to be seen whether Trump really wanted to change US policy towards the mainland or Taiwan.
“Before he is inaugurated on January 20, Trump is still a private citizen and can comment on what he wants,” the academic said. “But the Tsai government must take note of his using the Taiwan issue as a bargaining chip.”
He said the government also needed to consider the possibility that Beijing might put further pressure on Taiwan because of Trump’s actions.
