By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday that she will visit the US sometime between the end of this month and early next month for a “long overdue thank-you trip” after the January presidential election.
“I will visit major US cities in the trip to express my gratitude for overseas Taiwanese people’s support in the presidential election as well as getting to know their views about Taiwan’s future,” Tsai said.
Taiwan has had longstanding and close relations with its “allies” of Japan and the US, the former DPP presidential candidate told reporters on the sidelines of a movie premiere at Ximending.
“However, I found that Taiwan’s external relations under the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] administration in recent years have been imbalanced as the administration has spent almost all its efforts on China,” Tsai said.
After the presidential election, Tsai appeared to have taken a different approach from other politicians as she reiterated that Taiwan should look at its external relations with a broader perspective.
As several DPP politicians are engaged in discussions about visiting China, Taiwan should “try to initiate broader and deeper interaction with those countries which are expected to play critical roles in the future, including India, the ASEAN and even Middle Eastern countries,” Tsai said, who visited India last month.
Tsai’s itinerary for the US trip, which includes stops in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston and New York, could be finalized as soon as today, according to a staffer at Tsai’s office.
She is scheduled to deliver a speech on Oct. 27 at the Taiwan Center of Greater Los Angeles in San Gabriel, California.