Congress' tough stance on Beijing to continue: Ex-AIT director

Taipei, Oct. 14 (CNA) The United States Congress will continue to act "tough" on China regardless of whether Donald Trump or Kamala Harris wins the U.S. presidential election in November, a former top American diplomat to Taiwan said on Monday.

"No matter who wins the presidential elections this fall, the Congress will insist on broad continuity in our Asian policy, that will include continuing arms sales to Taiwan and projecting a tough stance toward any efforts by Beijing to threaten or attack this island," Stephen Young, former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Taipei director said in a Taipei seminar.

"If Kamala Harris is elected, she will demonstrate strong continuity with the [President Joe] Biden team," said Young, who served as AIT director from 2006 to 2009.

Young described Harris as so far having "pushed back vigorously against Chinese territorial claims, reinforcing American alliances with our many allies and friends in the Asia-Pacific region" in her role as vice president in the Biden administration.

"She is working assiduously to deepen her knowledge of the defense needed to maintain our alliances, showing an ability to rapidly familiarize herself with the Biden policies and any necessary additions aimed at crafting a bipartisan approach to defending Taiwan's territorial integrity," Young said.

While Trump would be "less predictable" than Harris if re-elected, the Republican former president "would still face significant opposition to any substantive shift away from Taipei," according to the former U.S. top envoy to Taiwan.

"The American Congress, across party lines, has long supported moral and material support for Taipei and its democratic system, and this is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future," he added.

Meanwhile, Young said China's economy is "stalling at a time when many of its regional neighbors are thriving," a fact that is expected to limit Beijing's impact "domestically as well as regionally."

"The West has also increasingly pushed back against China on the economic front with tariffs and other trade restrictions," he noted. "This process is likely to continue with negative impacts on China's domestic and international policies."

Young called on Taiwan to "continue to bolster its defenses, especially in the Taiwan Strait and contiguous waters."

The American, Japanese, Philippine and South Korean governments can also play a "productive role in this process," though Young admitted "it's going to take time to rectify past differences" in the specific responses to "Chinese aggression" among American allies.

Young made the remarks during his keynote address at a Taipei forum titled "The Political, Economic, and Social Development Trends in Mainland China under Xi Jinping's (習近平) Leadership."

The one-day seminar was organized by the Mainland Affairs Council, Taiwan's highest-level government agency in charge of China affairs, and the Institute for National Policy Research, a Taipei-based think tank.

Speaking at the forum, Andrew Scobell, a distinguished fellow with the China program at the government-funded U.S. Institute of Peace, also highlighted that China under Xi's leadership is different than it was under previous leaders.

Scobell said that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under Xi has "doubled down" on bolstering its internal security mechanisms and apparatus and elevated its attention to domestic matters.

As the most "ambitious top leader" since Mao Zedong (毛澤東), Xi's elevated aspirations for "national rejuvenation" also include unprecedented foreign policy ambitions both regionally and globally, Scobell said.

The CCP's goal of transforming China into a "global power of major consequence" seems to be intensifying, he suggested, adding that this ambition could make Xi's China more "outwardly adventurous" in the years to come.