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Taiwan’s core values – freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law — are under threat amid rising authoritarianism, the democratic island’s President Tsai Ing-wen said Thursday, drawing direct parallels between Taiwan and Ukraine.
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a wake-up call for all of us, reminding us that authoritarianism continues in its belligerence against democracy,” Tsai said at a private reception in New York City that was closed to the press. The Post received a recording of her comments.
At the event, Tsai received this year’s Global Leadership Award from the Hudson Institute, a conservative Washington-based think tank. Past recipients include former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.
Presenting Tsai with the award, Hudson Institute President John Walters hailed her as a leader on the front lines of the fight to stem Chinese aggression in Asia.
“The Chinese Communist Party fears them because they and Taiwan are an inspiration to the Chinese people who strive for freedom and yearn for democracy,” Walters said, according to the tape. “Their fight – their fight – is our fight.”
The US says the Taiwanese president is in transit. China is not amused.
Tsai made firm remarks in the face of Beijing’s threats, insisting that Taiwan “will never bow to pressure.”
“Taiwan has also long endured the danger of living next door to an authoritarian neighbor,” she told a crowd of conservative luminaries at a Midtown hotel. Taiwan does not seek conflict, Tsai said, reaffirming her commitment to maintaining a peaceful status quo across the Taiwan Strait.
She’s spending two days in New York en route to Central America, but her visit is deliberately low-key — she’s making no media appearances while in the United States — so as not to anger Beijing.
Her speech came at the end of a day exploring the culinary delights of New York City through meetings with Taiwanese-American chefs and restaurateurs. Crowds of supporters and protesters followed Tsai through the city, some carrying signs with messages like “Welcome Taiwan President,” others waving Chinese flags and banners calling Tsai “a great traitor to China.”
The visit, Tsai’s first in over three years, did more than draw attention to the New York dining scene. It has reminded Beijing that despite its global campaign to isolate Taiwan, few issues currently garner more support from both sides of the aisle in Washington than defending Taiwan’s democracy in the face of Chinese aggression.
There is uncertainty about how China will respond to the visit. Beijing has threatened retaliation if Tsai proceeds with next week’s scheduled meeting in California with Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who would become the highest-ranking US official to meet with a Taiwanese leader on American soil .
The visit is an excuse for “Taiwan separatist pro-independence forces” to campaign for their cause in Washington, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.
Washington has stressed that Tsai is only passing through on her way to Central America. But her trip comes at a time when Russia’s war in Ukraine has heightened the focus of Washington lawmakers on supporting Taiwan’s democracy in the face of Chinese autocracy.
The planned meeting with McCarthy at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif., is already a downgrade from McCarthy’s original intent to visit Taiwan himself, after last year’s visit to Taiwan by House Speaker Pelosi (D-Calif.), the an aggression sparked a military response from China that included a simulated blockade of the island.
The Biden administration has sought to downplay Tsai’s journey. Last week, national security adviser Jake Sullivan held a phone call with China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, to emphasize that the trip was routine.
But Beijing could interpret a meeting with an official as senior as McCarthy as having even bigger ramifications than Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, said Jingdong Yuan, a professor of Chinese defense policy at the University of Sydney.
“Meetings with senators and representatives are more or less routine, albeit limited in rank and number — so Tsai’s supposedly scheduled meeting with McCarthy would be something more significant,” Yuan said.
The military balance on both sides of the Taiwan Strait has changed dramatically over the past 30 years, Yuan added. “Between the US deployment in the western Pacific and the [People’s Liberation Army]it has undergone significant changes — as the Chinese military is in possession of many ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, which pose a much greater threat to US military assets,” Yuan said.
McCarthy’s meeting with Taiwan’s president puts the US on alert
Under Washington’s “one China policy,” which recognizes but does not support Beijing’s claims that Taiwan is part of China and that the Chinese Communist Party is its only government, Tsai cannot travel to the United States on an official state visit.
To comply with this policy, Tsai’s travels are coordinated between two organizations that act as embassies in all but name.
Tsai was greeted at John F. Kennedy International Airport by Laura Rosenberger, who recently left the National Security Council to head the American Institute in Taiwan, the unofficial organization that manages US-Taiwan relations. She has no further meetings scheduled with members of the Biden administration.
And Tsai met with ambassadors from countries that recognize Taiwan at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office on Thursday. The company known as Tecro donated over $100,000 to the Hudson Institute in 2021, according to the think tank’s most recent annual report.
Since then, Taiwanese leaders have pushed the boundaries of what constitutes acceptable but still unofficial activity in the United States. On a previous trip in 2019, Tsai met with members of Congress and even hosted a banquet for United Nations officials from Taiwan’s allies.
At a Wednesday night dinner with the Taiwan expatriate community, Tsai hailed Taiwan as “a beacon of democracy in Asia.” The dinner was attended by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, Deputy Speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly Raj Mukherji, New Jersey State Senator Gordon Johnson and New York State Senator Iwen Chu, all members the Democratic Party.
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Taiwan’s leaders are embroiled in ongoing negotiations with Washington over their reception in the United States, dating back to President Lee Teng-hui’s first transit of Hawaii in 1994 — when he failed to obtain a visa and not step foot off his plane. A later visit by Lee would trigger China’s escalating military aggression in the so-called third cross-strait crisis.
This week, Tsai is in New York for two days to cement ties with Guatemala and Belize, two of the island democracy’s only remaining diplomatic allies.
At the same time, her predecessor, Ma Ying-jeou, became the first former Taiwanese president to make a landmark trip to China, emphasizing the shared history and ties between people on both sides of the strait. Ma belongs to the opposition Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party, which advocates closer ties with China.
While Beijing has welcomed Ma’s visit, it has refused to deal with Tsai.