Biden, a Leader in Pragmatic Diplomacy: Is Taiwan Ready if He Becomes President?

Many people are focused on whether Joe Biden can become the next president. In addition to the numerous advantages he has in the election race — which we won’t talk about here — he is, in fact, an outstanding, pragmatic diplomatic leader.

Recently, The New York Times published a number of articles providing various perspectives on this. For example, according to one, when Barack Obama was president, the White House wanted to find out about the future leader of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping. Starting in 2011, over the course of a year and a half, Vice President Biden met with Xi in both mainland China and the U.S. eight times. During their 25 hours of face time, they had formal meetings, played private basketball games at a school in China and dined together in restaurants (according to news reports, the two went to a noodle shop to eat beef noodles). Xi’s translator was even stumped by Biden’s recitation of Irish verse. But although Xi has been personally friendly with Biden, the Chinese leader’s authoritarian tendencies have not disappeared.

The exchanges between Xi and Biden left a deep impression on officials in the White House. Interestingly, one such official was Daniel Russel, who would become the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs. When I was stationed in Washington, we interacted frequently. At the time, he was specializing in Japanese affairs, and while his Japanese was better than his Chinese, he was familiar with the cross-strait affairs between China and Taiwan. Other officials were the former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and retired Gen. Colin Powell. All were strong in praising Biden as an internationalist.

We met Biden during our work when he was chairing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. While he never visited Taiwan, we interacted with his congressional assistants. One of them I met was quite extraordinary; an expert in modern Chinese history who specialized in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the assistant once even wanted me to check out a television drama they were hooked on about the Qing Dynasty. That Biden would employ an expert like this gave me an insight into the type of person he was.

In all fairness, Biden’s life has not always been easy. Although 77 is an advanced age, let us not forget that Sen. James Thurmond* served past his 100th birthday and current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is 80. Biden’s first wife and daughter were killed in a car accident, and of his two sons, one, who was the attorney general of Delaware, died of cancer. All members of the Biden family are devout Catholics, and Biden even has a photo hanging in his office of his family with the pope. When he was a senator, Biden commuted daily by train an hour and a half each way to return home to his family. This is a vastly different image of a man than that of Donald Trump, who sells U.S. military equipment indiscriminately and withdrew from the World Health Organization.

In keeping with his tendency toward pragmatic diplomacy, Biden has indicated that as soon as he is elected, the U.S. will rejoin the WHO. I hope when that time comes, it will help Taiwan in joining. Now, however, we are watching the election. Apparently, Biden’s choice for vice presidential running mate will be announced in early August. He already announced in March that he would choose a woman, and the commonly mentioned potential choices include:

— California Sen. Kamala Harris. The former attorney general of the state, Harris supports police reform. She is of Indian and Jamaican descent and is a big draw for black female voters.

— Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The recently elected governor has been a leader in the Democratic Party and in the country’s fight against the coronavirus.

— Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth. Duckworth served in the military during the Iraq War, where she lost both her legs. She then served as the assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs in the Department of Veterans Affairs, after which she was elected to the House of Representatives, and then the Senate. She is Thai American.

— Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. A powerful figure in the Democratic Party, Warren was originally thought to help Bernie Sanders get elected, but now she has shifted focus to help Biden.

— Former national security advisor and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the Obama administration, Susan Rice. Biden has relied on her before.

— Finally; Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin, New Mexico Sen. Michelle Lujan Grisham** and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. Victory in the states these women represent is critical for Biden, and Mayor Lance Bottoms is an important figure in the current police reform movement.

Without delving into the particular attributes of these candidates, we can already know that my colleagues in America must work harder; Taiwan no longer has the support of veteran senators such as Barry Goldwater and Jesse Helms, so we must make connections with new ones. Even though Taiwan’s newly appointed representative to the U.S., Hsiao Bi-khim, came from an American mother and grew up speaking English, winning over Biden and expanding support across the U.S. will not be easy. To my many colleagues mobilizing across the U.S., I wish you success.

The author formerly served as Taiwan’s representative to the U.S.

*Editor’s Notes: James Thurmond was more commonly and famously known by his given middle name, Strom.

** Michelle Lujuan Grisham is the current governor of New Mexico. She once served as a congresswoman from that state, but has never been a senator.