Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

US official worried about Tsai: report

Taipei Times

US supporters of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) are accusing US President Barack Obama’s administration of interfering with the Taiwanese elections.

This follows a report in the Financial Times that the US administration believes that a Tsai victory in January could raise tensions with China.

According to the British newspaper, a “senior US official” told it that after meeting with the DPP presidential candidate in Washington on Wednesday that “she left us with distinct doubts about whether she is both willing and able to continue the stability in cross-strait relations the region has enjoyed in recent years.”

Mapping out a third way for the Taiwanese

Michael Danielsen

Since 2008, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has been in full charge of expanding Taiwan’s international space. As a result, the KMT bears sole responsibility for Taiwan’s diminishing face and presence in the international community.

This is a worrisome development as the KMT perpetually erodes and trivializes knowledge about Taiwanese and Taiwanese society, making it much harder to promote policies that support the heart of Taiwanese people.

The KMT’s strategy of increasing the distance between Taiwanese and the rest of world and leaving an impression of warming ties between Taiwan and China is a betrayal of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 2008 election promises to put Taiwan first.

US officials to skip Taiwan event

Taipei Times

The US Department of State is declining for the first time to address an annual industry conference on defense and security ties between the US and Taiwan, the event’s organizer said.

US arms sales to Taiwan are a major sore spot with China. Still, the State Department has sent one of its senior officials to speak at the event each year for the past nine years, US-Taiwan Business Council president Rupert Hammond-Chambers said in an interview on Tuesday.

“It’s certainly a -disappoint-ment,” he said, although a senior Pentagon official will address the conference.

Taiwan bill introduced in US Congress

Taipei Times

A major new bill to strengthen and enhance the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) has been introduced to the US Congress by Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairperson of the House of Representatives Foreign Relations Committee.

“With the TRA and the 2000 Taiwan Relations Enhancement Act, it is the most important piece of Taiwan legislation in the US Congress over the past 30 years,” said Coen Blaauw, an executive with the Formosa Association For -Public Affairs.

Known as the “Taiwan Policy Act of 2011,” the bill may have enough bipartisan support to pass the Republican-controlled House, but it is likely to have a harder time in the Senate.

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