Among the three main presidential candidates, Vice President Lai Ching-te’s (賴清德) cross-strait policy is the most likely to be understood by the Taiwanese people. That was the view of several scholars speaking on Friday at a think tank conference focused on the 2024 presidential candidate’s cross-strait policies.
The conference, hosted by the Association of Chinese Elite Leadership, convened experts on cross-strait relations. Scholar Chang Kuo-cheng (張國城) says that Lai’s cross-strait policy laid out in his “four pillars” is the most clear because it is essentially a continuation of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) policy.
Chang says the policies of Kuomintang (KMT) candidate and New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) are more controversial. He adds that Taiwan People’s Party candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) has said different things at different times and that a national leader should be clear and consistent on important issues.
Also speaking at the conference was National Taiwan University East Asian Studies Professor in Fan Shih-ping (范世平). Fan says that think tank scholars are very influential in Washington. He adds that the opinions of prominent cross-strait scholars such as Bonnie Glaser of the German Marshall Fund, are a good representation of how Washington is thinking about each of the three candidates' cross-strait policies.