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Other than the news of the summit between the presidents of Taiwan and China, on November 3, KMT chairman and presidential candidate Eric Chu (Chu Li-luan) has confirmed that he will visit the US on November 10.

China Times reports, Chu will attend events held by the ethnic Chinese communities in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, and the highlight will be in Washington DC, where Chu may make arrangements to enter the White House and State Department to meet officials in charge of Taiwan affairs. This will be the first time for a KMT chairman to enter the White House.

DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen met with the Deputy Secretary Antony Blinken, who was the official of the highest-level Tsai visited during her trip to the US in June this year. While Tsai had conversations with senior officials in the White House National Security Council, it’s said that the US National Security advisor, Susan Rice, greeted Tsai as well. This was a high profile visit that no other Taiwanese presidential candidates had in the past.

State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said in a written statement that the US welcomes Chu and looks forward to discuss different issues with him, just like the ones the US had with Tsai during her visit in June.

Trudeau stresses that the US will not choose sides regarding Taiwan’s presidential election, and the result of the election is up to the Taiwanese people.

UDN reports, there might be two main focuses in Chu’s talks with US officials. One is to soothe the aftermath caused by the original KMT presidential candidate Hung Shiu-chu’s cross-strait policy and the other is to actively seek the possibility for the US to include Taiwan into the TPP and other regional economic integration organizations.

Translated by Vic Chiang
Edited by Olivia Yang

Sources: