The US should intervene in Taiwan's party primaries in line with the TRA

美國應該根據《與台灣關係法》干預台灣的黨內初選

Washington has legal obligation to intervene in KMT and DPP presidential primary elections


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), passed in 1979 and celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2019, is the domestic law of the United States governing relations with Taiwan.

The law was designed to safeguard human rights in the Western Pacific and to maintain peace across the Taiwan Strait.

Some of its major provisions under Section Two, part B include the following:


- To consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means, including by boycotts or embargoes, a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of grave concern to the United States

- To maintain the capacity of the United States to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan.


And Section Two, part C.


Nothing contained in this Act shall contravene the interest of the United States in human rights, especially with respect to the human rights of all the approximately eighteen million inhabitants of Taiwan. The preservation and enhancement of the human rights of all the people on Taiwan are hereby reaffirmed as objectives of the United States.


Currently, there are two primary political parties in Taiwan, the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

In the lead up to the 2020 presidential election, both of these parties have ignored, and jeopardized the human rights of the Taiwanese people. Such violations have caused the people to lose trust in both political parties.

Since the implementation of the TRA in 1979, no Taiwanese government, political party, or president, even the authoritarian leader Chiang Ching-kuo, has opposed the provisions of the Act.

The current presidential primaries of both the KMT and the DPP in Taiwan have already caused great harm to the Taiwanese people. In accordance with the provisions of the TRA, the U.S. has a legal obligation to intervene in the presidential primary elections in Taiwan to ensure security in the country and the region.