Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) could expect a sound relationship with the US and China if she were to win January’s presidential election, former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) wrote in an article published yesterday.
“I’m confident we will have the first female president in Taiwan’s history in January,” Chen, who is serving a 17-and-a-half-year jail sentence for corruption and money laundering, wrote in his latest column titled “The truth you did not know.”
The DPP presidential candidate would stand behind her pledge to safeguard Taiwan’s sovereignty and not make deals with China in exchange for personal benefit, Chen wrote in the article, which was dated July 30.
If Tsai, who Chen said is the the main driving force behind the DPP’s comeback from its low point in 2008, were to win the presidential election, her administration would enjoy better relations with Washington and Beijing than those he experienced during his time in office, from 2000 until 2008, he wrote.
Tsai has a good relationship with US officials, members of the US Congress and academics at numerous US think tanks, and maintains open channels of communication with all of them, Chen wrote.
“The US administration would not be opposed to her presidency,” he wrote. “The US would also help relay messages from Tsai’s campaign office to China so that the Chinese would not make a miscalculation.”
In terms of cross-strait relations, Chen said bilateral dialogue was expected to continue even if President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) were to lose his re-election bid.
Chen added that he was optimistic about the presidential and legislative elections, saying that he expected a united pan-green camp to defeat a divided pan-blue camp.
Chen, who says his imprisionment was a vendetta carried out by Ma’s government in retaliation for his pro-independence stance, has produced a steady flow of books and columns since he was first detained in November 2008.