U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher, who chairs the House Select Committee on China, recently led a bipartisan delegation of committee members to Taiwan. During a meeting with Taiwan’s President-elect Lai Ching-te, Gallagher highlighted a sports analogy Lai had previously used: “If we play a one-on-one game [with China], we could lose, but if we play as … Read more
Since Taiwan’s first democratic presidential election in 1996, national elections have centered on national identity and the island’s future relationship with China. At present, however, the majority of Taiwan’s population largely identifies as Taiwanese, contrasting sharply with less than 3 percent identifying as Chinese only. This shift in identity, among other factors such as China’s … Read more
Governments around the world were keeping a close eye on this week’s summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden, held on the sidelines of the APEC Economic Leader’s Meeting in San Francisco. In their first in-person meeting since November 2022 – and just their second since Biden assumed office – the … Read more
Advertisement At the conclusion of his June 2023 trip to Beijing, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s official remarks emphasized a long-standing tenet of American cross-strait policy: that the United States “[does not] support Taiwan’s independence.” Perhaps owing to the many observers who have only turned their attention to cross-strait affairs following Russia’s 2022 invasion … Read more
Advertisement Taiwanese Vice President William Lai, who is the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s presidential candidate, transited through the United States this week on his way to and from Paraguay for the presidential inauguration of Santiago Peña. Taiwanese presidents traditionally do not travel directly to the United States, instead conducting “stopovers” on the way to visit … Read more
Advertisement As China increases its support across all the elements of national power – diplomatic, informational, military, and economic – for the military junta that seized power in Myanmar in February 2021, the United States must take a proactive approach to counter its growing influence in Southeast Asia and the Indo-Pacific region. I argue here … Read more