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Taiwan’s battered KMT ‘needs higher profile in United States’
- Opposition party considers reopening office in Washington after heavy electoral losses to DPP
- US favour a factor among the island’s Beijing-wary voters
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Lawrence Chungin Taipei
Fresh from a landslide electoral defeat, Taiwan’s main opposition party is considering opening an office in the US to keep in closer contact with Washington.
Better ties with the American administration could help the Kuomintang (KMT) counter some of the electoral sway that the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) gained from its support in Washington, observers said.
The KMT is looking to rebuild after heavy losses in legislative and presidential elections on the self-ruled island earlier this month.
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One of the main issues in the campaign was relations with Beijing, with voters wary of the KMT’s mainland China-friendly policies.
Washington had signalled strong support for the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen, from the independence-leaning DPP, including permitting high-level official and military exchanges and the signing of billions of US dollars worth of arms sales to the island.
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Charles I-hsin Chen, executive director of the Institute for Taiwan-America Studies (ITAS), a pro-KMT think tank based in Washington, said the KMT needed to revive its presence in the United States to better convey its message.
“There is a strong need for the KMT to pick up the US work again in order to maintain better and closer contacts with Washington,” Chen said.
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