The Biden administration will send an unofficial delegation comprised of former senior officials to Taiwan shortly after the self-governed island holds an election for a new president this weekend, a move that could upset Beijing in an already-fragile bilateral relationship. A senior administration official confirmed the plan on Wednesday without offering more details but said such a face-to-face meeting was the \u201cmost effective way\u201d to engage the new Taiwanese government and convey US policy in the region.<\/p>\n
The official, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive plans, said the administration believed the move would contribute to peace and stability in the region. Beijing claims Taiwan to be part of Chinese territory and vows to unify with it eventually. In August 2022, Beijing reacted angrily by firing missiles and blockading the island after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan. Chinese President Xi Jinping, at his most recent meeting with President Joe Biden in November, called Taiwan the \u201cmost sensitive issue\u201d in US-Chinese relations.<\/p>\n
Washington has a security pact with Taiwan to provide it with sufficient hardware and technology to deter any armed attack from the mainland. The US has stepped up support for Taiwan and its democratically elected government in recent years as Beijing ratchets up military and diplomatic pressure on the island. The US government takes no side on the island\u2019s statehood but insists the differences must be resolved peacefully. Biden told Xi in November that the US government opposes any unilateral change to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.<\/p>\n
The Biden administration has endorsed no political party or candidate in Taiwan\u2019s upcoming presidential election. Beijing, for its part, has made it clear that it does not want a victory by Lai Ching-te, also known as William Lai, the candidate from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party known for its pro-independence leaning. Lai is considered the front-runner in the race, but Hou Yu-ih from the opposition Kuomintang party trails closely. Kuomintang opposes independence, but it does not support unification with the mainland, either.<\/p>\n
Beijing has labelled Lai as a \u201cTaiwan independence element,\u201d and Chinese officials have suggested to Taiwan voters that they could be choosing between war and peace, for Beijing has vowed to annex the island forcibly should it declare independence. Lai, however, is unlikely to take such a drastic step. Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said Thursday on X, formerly Twitter, that the \u201cupcoming elections are in the international spotlight\u201d and that China\u2019s \u201crepeated interference steals the focus.\u201d He added that Beijing \u201cshould stop messing with other countries\u2019 elections & hold their own.<\/p>\n
Let the #Chinese people freely choose their leaders.\u201d The US official acknowledged a period of higher tensions lies ahead with Taiwan\u2019s presidential election but said there have been \u201ccontingency conversations\u201d in the US government for dealing with them. The official added that the White House also is engaging with Beijing on Taiwan to manage \u201cdifficult situations\u201d and avoid unintended conflict. The US official also said the Biden administration opposes any outside interference in Taiwan\u2019s election and that the administration has repeatedly raised the concern with Chinese officials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Biden administration will send an unofficial delegation comprised of former senior officials to Taiwan shortly after the self-governed island\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":24660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[7176,158,4858,7178,7980,5394,5395,5089,165,5087,3874,7979,791,7981,95],"class_list":["post-24656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-relations","tag-2024-taiwan-presidential-elections","tag-china","tag-chinese-interference","tag-chinese-military","tag-chinese-reunification-with-taiwan","tag-democratic-progressive-party-dpp","tag-kuomintang-kmt","tag-six-assurances","tag-taiwan","tag-taiwan-relations-act","tag-taiwan-strait","tag-us-delegation","tag-us-policy","tag-us-taiwan-security-pact","tag-usa"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}