Taiwan’s new president hopes to strengthen ties to Silicon Valley

By John | Thursday, October 9, 2008 | No Comments

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As I had blogged earlier this year, there was a presidential election in Taiwan in the Spring. The KMT‘s candidate, Ma Ying-jeo, won in a landslide, after 8 years of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)’s Chen Shui-bian presidential rule. I don’t really follow Taiwanese politics all that much, usually only around election time – especially if my mother flies back to vote.

The San Jose Mercury News had an exclusive interview with President Ma published in the newspaper today. This really is not a huge surprise considering that Taiwan & Silicon Valley have a very close economic inter-dependency as well as cultural ties, especially given the number of Taiwanese immigrants and Taiwanese Americans living in Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area overall.

Ma answers many questions in the interview, including:

Q: Do you have a particular message for Silicon Valley, long a close partner with Taiwan?
Q: The Bush administration recently announced it plans to sell $6.5 billion in weapons to Taiwan. China voiced strong opposition to it. Are you concerned this could impede your economic negotiations with Beijing?
Q: How would you characterize relationships between the United States and Taiwan now?
Q: What are your thoughts about the next president of the United States, John McCain or Barack Obama?

None of the answers are too surprising, but if you don’t follow what’s going on with Taiwan, Chinese-Taiwan or U.S.-Taiwan relations, you may find it educational. I think from an American point of view, Ma’s engagement with China has been less confrontational than the past administration. Of course, for those who are strong DPP supporters, I’m sure they have a different opinion.

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