Why did recent US politicians visit Taiwan or meet Taiwan leaders?
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy recently met in California in a show of democratic solidarity in defiance of threats from China. This is following the 2022 visit of Nancy Pelosi, Mr. McCarthy’s predecessor, to Taiwan.
The relationship between Taiwan and the US has been a topic of discussion in recent years, particularly with the election of Tsai Ing-wen in 2016. The US has long employed a policy of “strategic ambiguity” over Taiwan, declining to explicitly state how Washington would respond to a Chinese invasion of the island. However, the White House under President Biden has denied any change in US policy towards Taiwan. While during Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan visit, the Democratic House speaker said that the US would “not abandon” Taiwan and that China would “not stand in the way” of people coming to visit the island.
Why did US politicians, especially members of Congress, visit Taiwan in recent years, disregarding the escalated brewing tensions between Beijing and Washington? The most immediate reason is for the election purpose. Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in July 2022 was in good timing to show support for Taiwan’s democracy despite China’s threats of retaliation over the visit. By taking a stance supporting democracy, the Democratic House speaker was trying to strengthen her party’s odds of winning November’s midterm elections. In her op-ed in The Washington Post explaining her visit, Pelosi quotes from the Taiwan Relations Act and then goes on to say that “our congressional delegation’s visit should be seen as an unequivocal statement that America…supports Taiwan,” which shows a strong image as a democratic leader.
Republicans definitely do not want to fall behind by playing the Taiwan card. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met with Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen in Simi Valley, California, on April 5, 2023, making him the second US House speaker to meet with Taiwan’s president in person in the span of a year, following Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island in August 2022. Though the meeting was considered less provocative than Pelosi’s visit, which the Biden administration quietly sought to dissuade her from taking given the potential for ratcheting up tensions in the region, McCarthy’s meeting with Tsai was an important moment for him, who made creating a select committee on China one of his top priorities and who views the US relationship with China as a central issue of our time. Also, the meeting was held at the Reagan Presidential Library, a signal of the Republican party’s “home place” and was attended by a bipartisan congressional delegation.
In addition, the ties with Taiwan also matter to US arms sales overseas and peace of the critical region. McCarthy promised Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen unwavering support for Taiwan in the meeting, reaffirming American support for her government and emphasizing the importance of continued arms sales and economic cooperation with Taiwan.
Apparently, there are electoral, partisan, and economic reasons behind the US politicians’ engagement with Taiwan.