Taiwan: Recent Developments and U.S. Policy Choices. Updated August 5, 2008; Congressional rept

摘要

In a large turnout on March 22, 2008, voters in Taiwan elected as president Mr. Ma Ying-jeou of the Nationalist (KMT) Party. Mr. Ma out-polled rival candidate Frank Hsieh, of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), by a 2.2 million vote margin of 58% to 42%. Following the KMT's sweeping victory in January's legislative elections, the result appears to be a further repudiation of Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's 8-year record of governance. President-elect Ma, who began his tenure on May 20, 2008, has promised to improve Taiwan's economic performance, improve it's damaged relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC), and address any annoyances in Taiwan-U.S. relations arising from the Chen Administration. U.S.-Taiwan relations have undergone other important changes, sparked in part by the increasing complexity and unpredictability of Taiwan's democratic political environment. Throughout his tenure, Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian, a member of the DPP, disavowed key concepts long embraced by the formerly ruling Nationalist Party (KMT) -- the 'status quo' that there is only one China and Taiwan is part of it -- and instead adopted the more provocative position that Taiwan already is an independent, sovereign country. Taiwan's relations with the United States suffered under these conditions, and the PRC, which claims that Taiwan is a province of China, objected strongly to President Chen's policies. The continued success in 2008 of Taiwan's democratic development is a welcome validation of U.S. goals and values. It also further emphasizes the unique and delicate challenge for U.S. policy that Taiwan poses: our ninth largest trading partner with a vibrant and free democratic government on an island claimed by the PRC, with which the United States has no diplomatic relations but does have defense commitments, and whose independence from China U.S. officials have said they do not support.