Taiwan’s Tsai and Lai welcome US support as Beijing fumes over election
Al Jazeera
Unofficial delegation from Washington meets self-ruled island’s president and president-elect in Taipei.
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen and President-elect William Lai Ching-te have hailed the support of the United States for the self-ruled island in meetings with an unofficial delegation from Washington amid anger in Beijing at overseas governments’ congratulations of Taiwan on its weekend election.
The US delegation – including former US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and former Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg – arrived in Taiwan on Sunday, a day after Lai, currently the vice president, won an unprecedented third term for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Beijing, which claims Taiwan as its own and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve its objectives, has long criticised Lai as a so-called “separatist”. It cast the election as a choice between “peace and war”.
In the event, Lai won 40.1 percent of the vote compared with 33.5 percent for Hou Yu-ih of the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) party, his nearest rival.
“Your visit is highly meaningful. It fully demonstrates US support for Taiwan’s democracy and highlights the close and staunch partnership between Taiwan and the US,” Tsai told the US delegates.
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