Taoyuan City Mayor is leading the municipal delegation to visit the United States from July 6 to July 17, 2019. On the morning of July 10 (US time), the Mayor was invited to give a speech at the Wilson Center. Mayor Cheng shared how Taiwan, at the forefront under the Indo-Pacific strategy, should face the rising great power which seeks regional hegemony under the topic “Threats and Opportunities of Taiwan’s Democracy in the US Indo-Pacific Strategy.”
Mayor Cheng pointed out that China has resorted to dollar diplomacy, the BRI, and creating debt traps to expand its international influence. Many countries are thus forced to align with China in their overall development strategies. In addition, China uses “not interfering with other countries’ internal politics” as an excuse to discard mainstream values in the international community, and legitimize its support for many governments that violate democracy and human rights. Mayor Cheng stressed that China influences Taiwan hugely with a variety of approaches such as diplomatic blockade, military threat, and infiltration as a means to unification. Therefore, reducing China’s influence and reinforcing Taiwan’s self-defense mechanism has become a new challenge.
Mayor Cheng stated that the V-Dem project conducted by Sweden’s Gothenburg University has shown that Taiwan receives the most external misinformation in the world. Misinformation is intentionally embedded with a certain level of truth to make it more convincing, and its ultimate goal is to manipulate elections and swaying public opinion. The government, therefore, has established fact-checking platforms to fight against fake news on social media and communication applications to prevent misinformation from disseminating.
Mayor Cheng mentioned that the anti-extradition treaty in Hong Kong has raised an anti-China affiliation atmosphere in Taiwan, and “one country, two systems” gains no support from the Taiwanese public. A lack of positive feelings toward China has created a wall for China in garnering support from the Taiwanese public. Mayor Cheng believes that Taiwan is at the forefront of China’s rise. Under the US Indo-Pacific strategy, it is important for Taiwan and neighboring countries to collaborate more closely so that the region can achieve peace and stability, regional security, and economic prosperity.
After the speech, Mayor Cheng visited the Hudson Institute where participants had an extensive discussion on US, China, and Taiwan relations, preventive measures on misinformation, and the role of Taiwan in the US Indo-Pacific strategy. Participants included Director Seth Cropsey of Center for American Seapower and over a dozen experts and scholars. In the evening, the Mayor was invited to the welcome banquet hosted by Global City Teams Challenge (GCTC). Deputy Assistant Secretary Ian Steff of the US Department of Commerce, business exchange delegation organized by the Department of Economic Development of Taoyuan, the Asia Silicon Valley Development Agency delegation, and Envoy Hsueh Mei-yu of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States all joined the events.