(Taipei) An informal delegation sent to Taiwan by the United States met with outgoing President Tsai Ing-wen on Monday, two days after the election of her successor Lai Ching-te and amid growing pressure from China.
“Your visit is very significant,” greeted the president, because “it fully demonstrates the United States’ support for Taiwanese democracy and highlights the close and strong partnership between Taiwan and the United States.”
Made up of former National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, former Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and President of the American Institute in Taiwan Laura Rosenberger, the commission will leave Taiwan on Tuesday.
“We are here to extend our congratulations to you and the people of Taiwan on the presidential and legislative elections held on January 13,” said Stephen Hadley, hailing Taiwanese democracy as “an example for the entire world.” .
He said the delegation would meet later in the day with President-elect Lai Ching-te, who like Tsai Ing-wen is from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), as well as other presidential candidates.
This is not the first time that Washington has sent an informal delegation to Taiwan after an election: in 2016, former Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns came two days after the election of Tsai Ing-wen as president of the island.
“Strong informal partnership”
The visit comes at the end of an electoral campaign marked by growing pressure, both diplomatic and military, from China, which considers Taiwan as one of its provinces, to be reunified by force if necessary.
Lai Ching-te, outgoing vice president, considers the island to be de facto independent and has promised to protect it from “threats and intimidation” from Beijing.
The status of Taiwan is arguably the most explosive topic in relations between China and the United States.
If Washington has recognized Beijing to the detriment of Taipei since 1979, the American Congress has at the same time imposed the provision of arms to Taiwan, with the stated aim of dissuading China from any expansionist desire.
Sending the delegation aims to “clearly communicate to the president-designate […] the importance of a strong informal partnership, and being clear on what the US one-China policy is and what it is not,” a senior US official explained before the visit under condition of anonymity.
This trip risks irritating China, which had already, during the campaign, urged Washington to “not interfere” in the presidential election in Taiwan.
Beijing castigated the message from the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken, who had praised the “solid democratic system” of the island, saying that it “sends a profoundly erroneous signal to separatist forces in favor of “Taiwan independence ””.
” Deadlock ”
China insisted on Saturday evening that the outcome of this election did not change anything in “the inevitable trend towards the reunification of China”, pledging to “firmly oppose separatist activities aimed at independence of Taiwan as well as foreign interference.
“If anyone on the island of Taiwan intends to move towards independence, they […] will attempt to divide Chinese territory and will undoubtedly be severely punished by history and the law,” Wang Yi, the head of Chinese diplomacy, warned on Sunday.
“It’s a dead end,” he added, because “Taiwan has never been a country. It hasn’t been in the past and it certainly won’t be in the future.”
Lai Ching-te, 64, will take office on May 20, alongside his vice-president, Hsiao Bi-khim, former representative of Taipei in Washington.
The one who, in the past, had defined himself as “a pragmatic architect of Taiwan’s independence”, has since softened his speech: now, like Tsai Ing-wen, he has a more nuanced position, affirming that an independence process is not necessary, because the island has, according to him, de facto this status.
Promising to be “on the side of democracy”, the president-elect also plans to “continue exchanges and cooperation with China”, the first commercial partner of Taiwan, a territory of 23 million inhabitants located 180 kilometers from Chinese coasts.
A conflict in the strait separating them would be disastrous for the global economy: more than 50% of the containers transported in the world transit there and the island produces 70% of the planet’s semiconductors.