Taiwan: Overall Developments and Policy Issues in the 109th Congress

U.S. officials saw relations with Taiwan as especially troubled during the 109th Congress in 2005-2006, beset by the increasing complexity and unpredictability of Taiwan's democratic political environment as well as by PRC actions underscoring Beijing's assertion that it had the right to use force to prevent Taiwan independence. In his second term that began in 2004, Taiwan's President, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Chen Shui-bian, increasingly flouted commitments made to U.S. officials and disavowed key concepts long embraced by his Nationalist Party (KMT) opponents-the "status quo" that there is only one China and Taiwan is part of it and instead adopted the more provocative position that Taiwan's "status quo" is that it already is an independent, sovereign country.