NEW YORK—A candidate for the president of Taiwan in a speech in Brooklyn before 1,200 supporters looked to New York City for inspiration for her island nation while drawing several sharp contrasts with its giant neighbor, China.
“The spirit of New York provides us with an important conviction. A city can be prosperous, and when it is tolerant to differences and it respects different cultures, then you have a great city,” said Tsai Ing-wen, the chairperson of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), in Brooklyn’s Marriott Hotel on June 5. “And New York is the most diverse and open-minded place in the world.”
Tsai said Taiwan is also a society with much diversity and tolerance, with new immigrants from China and Southeast Asia. According to Tsai, such diversity should be “Taiwan’s soft power,” and “just like New York, cultural achievements can be shared with the rest of the world while stimulating the economy.”
Tsai was on a 12-day tour with visits to six cities in the United States, including a stopover in Washington, D.C, where the presidential nominee gave a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Tsai concluded her trip with visits to Houston and San Francisco before returning to Taiwan.
