Taipei, Oct. 11 (CNA) A former United Stated ambassador to the United Nations on Wednesday said Taiwan "is its own country," while calling on Washington to discard its long-standing "strategic ambiguity" on Taipei and make clear to Beijing that the U.S. will come to Taiwan's defense should Beijing invade.
Kelly Craft, who served as the 30th U.S. Permanent Representative to the U.N. from 2019 to 2021 during the Donald Trump administration, made the remarks at a Taipei international conference on Wednesday.
"Taiwan is its own country. Its citizens have their own destiny. It is not for the narrow throat of a communist dictatorship to think or claim otherwise," she said during the luncheon that was part of the government-funded 2023 Yushan Forum.
During her time as U.S. top envoy to U.N., Craft said she had worked "tirelessly every day to fight systemic discrimination against Taiwan and to help raise Taiwan's profile in the corrupt United Nations system."
"I did this as a matter of U.S. policy. I did this as a matter of principle. But I also did it as a matter of friendship."
She called on the world to "stand up to China's efforts to exclude Taiwan from international organizations, not just for the good of Taiwan, but for the good of the world," given the fact that Taipei has so much to offer to the world.
There is not one single area where Taiwan could not make a meaningful contribution to helping the United Nations reach its Sustainable Goals, she said, "Taiwan's exclusion makes no sense to me."
Meanwhile, on the U.S.' long-standing policy of "strategic ambiguity" on Taiwan, Craft urged Washington to "replace it with a policy of strategic clarity," by making clear to Beijing that "if it tries to invade Taiwan, the U.S. will come to its defense."
Over the past few decades, the U.S. has intentionally maintained a stance characterized as "strategic ambiguity" regarding whether it would militarily intervene in the event of a Chinese attack.
Under this stance, Washington is deliberately vague about whether the U.S. would do more than just provide Taiwan with weapons based on the Taiwan Relations Act and actually send troops to help Taiwan fight China.
However, since taking office in January 2021, President Joe Biden has repeatedly used language that appeared to diverge from this longstanding policy.
On each of those occasions, Biden administration officials later walked back the comments and signaled that America's Taiwan policy had not changed.
Craft is known as one of the most Taiwan-friendly American politicians and in 2020 met with Taiwan's representative to New York James Lee (李光章) in a rare meeting between a Taiwanese diplomat and American U.N. envoy due to the lack of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
She also regularly speaks out publicly for Taiwan and is famously known for her twitter photographs with a stuffed Formosan black bear, a gift from Taiwanese representative to the U.S. Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and a symbol of U.S.-Taiwan friendship. She also took the bear to the U.N. General Assembly Hall.
Craft was originally set to visit Taiwan on January 2021 under her official capacity as a U.N. envoy but the planned trip was canceled at the last minute due to the upcoming presidential transition at that time and strong protests from the Chinese government.
When asked to comment on being finally able to visit Taiwan after two years, Craft said during a press event following the luncheon that she is more than happy to have the opportunity, given that her previous planned visit had been canceled due to "direct threats" from China.
She also revealed that a Chinese diplomat met her in an one-on-one meeting to "encourage" her not to visit Taiwan after learning of her intention and she ultimately decided to abort the travel out of "concern for Taiwan," she said without elaborating.
She finally made the trip as a private citizen this time which she described as "a honor of a lifetime to be here," Craft added.
As a private citizen, Craft said it is her firm belief that the U.S. should establish official diplomatic relations with Taiwan. However, she also noted that diplomatic recognition is not what makes Taiwan a sovereign state.
"I think it's really important to make a statement that Taiwan is a sovereign state whether or not the United States or any other country has diplomatic relations with it," she said.
The ex-American ambassador also said she still carries the stuffed Formosan black bear with her when she travels and the bear has been very popular with her 12 grandchildren.
After leaving public office, Craft now heads a business advisory firm based in Lexington, Kentucky, and serves on the advisory board of the Canadian American Business Council.
She ran in the Republican primary for the 2023 Kentucky gubernatorial election, but lost to Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron.
Craft was invited to speak at the two-day Yushan Forum, which was first held in 2017 as part of the government's New Southbound Policy.
Launched by the current Democratic Progressive Party government in 2017, the policy aims to increase exchanges between Taiwan and neighboring Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states, six states in South Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
