US scholars have expressed approval of President Tsai Ing-wen’s inaugural speech.
Both Ralph Cossa, President of the Pacific Forum Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Donald Zagoria, Senior Vice President at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, think Tsai’s speech was better than they expected. However, they said they have noticed a shift in US-China relations.
Cossa was speaking at the Asia Pacific Power Balance forum by the Japan Society. He said the US is very positive about Tsai’s speech.
However, Cossa said that China’s response to Tsai’s speech has placed the US and China in discord for the first time in 12 years. He said this could be a problem. Cossa said he hopes that China can wisely accept two thirds of the negotiation chips and not meddle over the remaining one third that is not being met.
Zagoria said that China has commented that Tsai’s speech was “an uncompleted test paper”. Zagoria said that’s better than giving an “F”. He said China’s reaction to Tsai’s speech is seemingly mild and that shows the possibility of dialogue between the two sides.