After Taiwan’s poll, new envoy to US offers assurances to Washington, Beijing

AP  :
Taiwan’s top diplomat in Washington, Alexander Tah-Ray Yui, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024 in Washington.
Taiwan’s top diplomat in Washington has a message for both the island’s Chinese adversaries and its American friends: Don’t worry that Taiwan’s new president-elect will worsen relations with Beijing and possibly draw the U.S. into a conflict.
President-elect Lai Ching-te plans to keep the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, Alexander Tah-Ray Yui told The Associated Press on Thursday in his first interview with an international news organization since he arrived in the U.S. in December.
The Chinese government has called Lai a troublemaker who will push Taiwan toward independence. But Yui said Lai is willing to engage with Beijing, even as the island seeks to strengthen its unofficial ties with Washington for stability in the region.
“We want the status quo. We want the way it is – neither unification, neither independence. The way it is is the way we want to live right now,” said Yui, Taiwan’s de-facto ambassador to the U.S., noting the stance is largely supported at home and will guide the new administration.
Yui spoke to the AP five days after Lai won the presidential election with more than 40% of the vote in a three-way race. Lai will succeed Tsai Ing-wen when he is inaugurated in May.
His victory, which gives the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party an unprecedented third presidential term, was not welcomed by Beijing, which claims Taiwan as its own, to be taken by force if necessary.
Military action in the Taiwan Strait could draw in the United States, which has a security pact with Taiwan to deter any armed invasion from the mainland.
Beijing refused to have any dialogue with Tsai because her party rejects China’s claim of sovereignty over the island, and before the election had suggested to voters that they could be choosing between war and peace.
It remains unclear if Beijing will be willing to engage with Lai, who in the past described himself as a “pragmatic worker of Taiwan’s independence.”