WASHINGTON, D.C.: Taiwan's top diplomat in Washington has a message for both the island's Chinese adversaries and its American friends: There is no reason to worry that Taiwan's incoming leader will worsen relations with Beijing and possibly draw the United States into a conflict.

Leader-elect Lai Ching-te plans to keep the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, envoy Alexander Tah-Ray Yui told The Associated Press (AP) recently in his first interview with an international news organization since he arrived in the US last December.

China has called Lai a troublemaker who will push Taiwan toward independence. But Yui said Lai was willing to engage with Beijing, even as the self-ruling, democratic island seeks to strengthen its unofficial ties with Washington for stability in the region.

"We want the status quo. We want the way it is: neither unification, neither independence. The way it is is the way we want to live right now," said Yui, Taiwan's de-facto ambassador to the US, noting the stance is largely supported at home and will guide the new administration.

Yui spoke to the AP five days after Lai won Taiwan's leadership election with more than 40 percent of the vote in a three-way race. Lai will succeed outgoing leader Tsai Ing-wen when he is sworn in May.

His victory, which gives the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party an unprecedented third term at the island's helm, was not welcomed by Beijing, which claims Taiwan as its own and has vowed to retake it by force if necessary.

Military action in the Taiwan Strait could draw in the US, which is obligated under a 1979 law to provide Taipei with sufficient military hardware and technology.

Beijing refused to have any dialogue with Tsai because her party rejects China's claim of sovereignty over the island, and before the election, she had suggested to voters that they could be choosing between war and peace.

It remains unclear if Beijing would be willing to engage with Lai, who in the past described himself as a "pragmatic worker of Taiwan's independence."

Another ally lost

Two days after Lai was elected, China wooed away the small Pacific island nation of Nauru, which has left Taiwan with only 12 countries that recognize its statehood. However, China has not launched massive military exercises around the island, as it has in past times of increased tensions.

Yui said Lai intended to follow the same line as his predecessor, "but also to offer an olive branch to mainland China by saying that he's also willing to engage with mainland China."

At the same time, Taiwan will work with the US to boost its defense and deepen economic and cultural ties, Yui said, calling relations with Washington "one of the most important aspects in our foreign affairs."

The US does not have a formal relationship with Taiwan, but it has stepped up its support in the past several years, angering China, which has urged Washington to "exercise extreme prudence in handling Taiwan-related issues." Chinese President Xi Jinping told US President Joe Biden that Taiwan was the most sensitive issue in US-China relations.

Shortly after Taiwan's election, Biden told reporters that his administration does not support the island's independence.

Scott Kennedy, senior adviser and trustee chairman in Chinese business and economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, said he expected tensions to remain largely the same under Lai.

"Beijing will continue to develop its military capabilities and push the boundaries of military threats and economic coercion," Kennedy said. "The US will continue to assist Taiwan with its defensive preparedness and push Taiwan to move more assertively on the various elements needed for effective self-defense."

But he said Beijing might also open up some channels for the two sides to convey messages and reduce misunderstanding.

Yui said it was incumbent upon both Beijing and Taipei to keep the Taiwan Strait peaceful.

'Not the aggressors'

"I have to stress, we're not the aggressors. We're not the ones, you know, making waves in the Taiwan Strait, making things nervous and tense," he said, alluding to Beijing's increased military activities near the island in the past several years.

The envoy also said Taiwan was determined to safeguard its homeland, noting that the island was increasing its defense budget and had extended the mandatory military service from four months to one year.

He said Beijing's luring away of Nauru was an attempt to punish the Taiwanese people for choosing the leader they wanted and would only backfire.

"They were just trying to find an appropriate time and excuse to slowly pluck all of our allies," Yui said. But, as a technological powerhouse and a democracy, Taiwan has "become a common word in the international community," and countries around the world have become more willing to engage with it, he added.

Yui, who was born into a diplomat's family, attended high school in Panama and received both his bachelor's and master's degrees from Texas A&M University. He previously served as Taiwan's ambassador to Paraguay and as its vice foreign minister.

Before he came to Washington, Yui briefly served as Taiwan's representative to the European Union and Belgium. Yui succeeded Hsiao Bi-Khim, who left the post in November to be Lai's running mate. Hsiao, who is credited with deepening US-Taiwan ties when she headed the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US between 2020 and 2023, will be Taiwan's next deputy leader.

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