TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — There are three main ways Taiwan will benefit from former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to the country next week, former diplomat Vincent Chao (趙怡翔) said on Monday (Feb. 21).
These are: normalizing high-level interactions between the two countries, making Taiwan’s international participation a core U.S. interest, and freeing bilateral ties from past constraints, per an ETToday report.
Chao, who is running for Taipei city councilor on behalf of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), said he was fortunate there was an overlap between his time working as an interpreter at Taiwan’s representative office in Washington and Pompeo’s tenure, as he saw firsthand how Pompeo expanded ties with Taiwan. Chao said Pompeo led like-minded countries to pay more attention to the security of the Taiwan Strait and built the basis for the next U.S. administration's Taiwan policy.
Chao said Pompeo’s visit will be a historic trip that further normalizes high-level visits by American leaders in recent years. In addition to normalizing these exchanges, it will tell the world the friendship between Taiwan and the U.S. will not change just because of the threat from China.
As for Taiwan’s international participation, Chao said the U.S. has repeatedly told countries that diplomatically recognize Taiwan that it stands with Taiwan and any move to end diplomatic relations with Taipei will have repercussions for that state’s ties with Washington. This has helped curb China’s diplomatic offensive to steal the last of the East Asian country’s diplomatic partners, Chao said.
The U.S. has also taken note of China's undue influence in UN organizations and is pushing for Taiwan to join in various international fora, he added.
Chao said Pompeo led the U.S. to a clearer understanding of the Chinese Communist Party threat and to let go of the unrealistic expectation that the communist regime would reform. Taiwan-U.S. ties have improved under the premise of maintaining security in the Taiwan Strait, he stated.
Taipei and Washington have in recent years been exploring ways to improve their relationship and break through self-imposed restrictions. This has included relaxing rules about diplomatic interactions, normalizing regular arms sales, and bilateral strategic collaboration.