The National Committee on American Foreign Policy concluded the risk of conflict for the 2020 presidential election means all sides should `exercise restraint’
Taiwan News
Date: 2019/04/30
By: Ryan Drillsma, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
President Tsai Ing-wen meeting a NCAFP delegation in 2016. (Photo: Office of the President)
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A United States think tank has suggested Taiwan, China and the U.S. adopt “zero accident” policies to prevent conflict over the next two years.
The National Committee on American Foreign Policy, a New York-based non-partisan advisory organization, held a dialogue entitled Cross-Taiwan Strait Relations: Managing Triangular Dynamics on April 3-4. The forum concluded the risk of conflict across the Taiwan Strait will escalate in the run up to the 2020 Taiwan and U.S. presidential elections, therefore all parties should “exercise restraint” and “avoid surprises.”
Around 30 scholars and former government officials from Taiwan, China and the U.S. were invited to attend the closed-door meeting headed by Brookings Institute fellow Ryan Hass. Attendees included American Institute in Taiwan Chairman James Moriarty, the institute’s former chairman Raymond Burghardt, and Justin Yifu Lin, an economist who defected from Taiwan to China in the 1970s.
The report stated the U.S. representatives said the next two years will be particularly sensitive, and all parties should exercise restraint and find common understanding. Taiwan should refrain from enacting new laws or initiating referendums likely to provoke China, it said, and China should refrain from diplomatic, economic and military oppression of Taiwan. [FULL STORY]
