Hsiao Bi-khim

Hsiao Bi-khim is a Taiwanese politician and diplomat who has served as vice president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) since May 20, 2024, alongside President Lai Ching-te. A member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), she previously served four terms in the Legislative Yuan and was Taiwan’s representative to the United States from 2020 to 2023. Her career spans party international affairs, parliamentary politics, constituency representation, and diplomacy. (english.president.gov.tw)

Born in Japan and educated in Taiwan and the United States, Hsiao entered politics through the DPP’s overseas and international-affairs organizations. Her legislative work included foreign affairs, national defense, and civil rights, while her constituency career brought her to Hualien County in eastern Taiwan. Her subsequent diplomatic service in Washington and election to the vice presidency placed her in prominent roles in Taiwan’s international engagement and national government. (chinaboom.asiasociety.org)

Family background and education

Hsiao Bi-khim was born in Kobe, Japan, in 1971 to Hsiao Ching-fen, a Taiwanese Presbyterian minister and theological educator, and Peggy Cooley, an American music teacher. Her father came from Tainan in southern Taiwan, where he served as a professor and president of Tainan Theological College and Seminary. Her family background thus combined Taiwanese and American parentage with connections to Christian education and church work. She was one of three children; her siblings were Samuel and Bi-sek Jeannette. Although born in Japan, she spent her childhood and received her primary and junior-high education in Tainan. (english.president.gov.tw)

Her father’s career provided the institutional setting for the family’s movements between Taiwan and the United States. After graduating from Tainan Theological College and working as an assistant chaplain at Tunghai University, Hsiao Ching-fen went to the United States in 1963 for doctoral studies at Princeton Theological Seminary. He returned to Taiwan in 1967 and subsequently worked in theological teaching and administration in Tainan. In 1986, he moved to New Jersey to become area secretary for East Asia and the Pacific at the United Church Board for World Ministries, an organization of the United Church of Christ based in New York City. His work connected the family to both Taiwanese Presbyterian institutions and American church organizations. (english.pct.org.tw)

Hsiao attended the primary school now known as National University of Tainan Affiliated Primary School, followed by Tainan Municipal Houjia Junior High School. After completing junior high school, she moved with her family to the United States for senior-high education, attending Montclair High School in northern New Jersey. Her schooling therefore crossed two educational environments: primary and lower-secondary education in Taiwan, followed by upper-secondary and university study in the United States. The move to New Jersey occurred during her adolescence, rather than at the beginning of her childhood. (english.president.gov.tw)

Hsiao subsequently attended Oberlin College, earning a Bachelor of Arts in East Asian studies in 1993. During her undergraduate years, she worked in the college library’s East Asian Collection. In an interview published in Oberlin’s alumni magazine in August 1999, she recalled reading writings by Taiwanese dissidents and democracy activists there, including material that had previously been banned in Taiwan. This was a specific channel through which her university experience exposed her to accounts of Taiwan’s political history beyond those she had encountered while growing up. After Oberlin, she pursued graduate study at Columbia University, where she earned a Master of Arts in political science, specializing in international relations. She also undertook doctoral study in political science at Columbia before entering professional party work in 1995. (english.president.gov.tw)

Entry into party politics and presidential-office service

Hsiao Bi-khim entered professional politics in 1995 as program coordinator for the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) mission in the United States, after completing her graduate education. Her initial position was within a political party’s overseas organization, rather than Taiwan’s governmental diplomatic service. She subsequently moved into the party’s central international-affairs leadership: she became deputy director of its Department of International Affairs in 1996 and director in 1997. The Presidential Office’s official biography dates her directorship to 1997–2006, placing her in that role both before and after the DPP entered the national government in 2000. (english.president.gov.tw)

International communication was a central element of her work for Chen Shui-bian’s presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004. She served as a campaign spokesperson and international-affairs official, presenting the candidate’s positions to audiences outside Taiwan’s domestic electoral debate. A contemporary example appeared in the Taipei Times on March 11, 2000, in its coverage of a campaign forum involving representatives of the principal presidential contenders and members of the international media. Identified as the head of the DPP’s international-affairs department, Hsiao defended Chen’s capacity to undertake political reform and challenged opponents’ warnings about the consequences of his election for relations with China. These were campaign arguments advanced on Chen’s behalf, not statements issued by a government ministry. (chinaboom.asiasociety.org)

After Chen’s election in 2000, Hsiao was appointed an adviser in Taiwan’s Presidential Office and also worked as the president’s secretary and interpreter. These responsibilities brought her international-communication work into the presidential institution: alongside the advisory appointment, she provided secretarial and interpreting support directly to the president. The official biography lists these functions separately, rather than identifying her as a foreign minister or head of a diplomatic mission. The Ketagalan Forum’s official biographical record dates her Presidential Office advisory service to 2000–2002. Her position there was therefore an appointed staff responsibility, distinct both from her party directorship and from the representative mandate she subsequently obtained through election. (english.president.gov.tw)

Hsiao’s first election to the Legislative Yuan in December 2001 marked the beginning of that separate parliamentary career; her fifth-term legislative service began in 2002. It did not end her involvement in presidential campaigning or party international affairs. She again served as a spokesperson in Chen’s successful 2004 reelection campaign, a role documented both by Asia Society’s biographical account and by the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats in 2006. Her early career thus included overlapping but institutionally distinct assignments: communicating for the DPP, assisting an incumbent president through appointment, and later serving as an elected legislator. (chinaboom.asiasociety.org)

Legislative service and parliamentary work

Hsiao Bi-khim served four nonconsecutive terms in Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan, representing the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the fifth, sixth, eighth, and ninth legislatures. Her first election, on December 1, 2001, preceded the commencement of her fifth-term service on February 1, 2002; that term ended on January 31, 2005. She occupied a seat designated for overseas citizens, rather than a territorial constituency. In the December 11, 2004 election, she won a constituency seat in Taipei, serving in the sixth legislature from February 1, 2005, to January 31, 2008. Thus, the frequently cited beginning of her parliamentary career in 2001 refers to her election, not her assumption of legislative office. (english.president.gov.tw)

After an interval outside the legislature, Hsiao returned through the January 14, 2012 election. Her eighth-term service ran from February 1, 2012, to January 31, 2016, in the combined nationwide and overseas-citizen category: this was an at-large seat, distinct from her earlier Taipei constituency mandate. She subsequently won Hualien County’s constituency seat in the January 16, 2016 election and served in the ninth legislature from February 1, 2016, to January 31, 2020. Her four terms therefore encompassed overseas representation, urban constituency representation, nationwide at-large representation, and an eastern Taiwan county constituency, rather than continuous service for a single electorate. (news.pts.org.tw)

Foreign-policy scrutiny was a substantial component of Hsiao’s committee work. In the fifth legislature, she belonged to the Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Committee during its fifth and sixth sessions, serving as a convener in the sixth; she also served extensively on the Constitutional Amendment Committee. During the eighth legislature, she belonged to the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee in all eight sessions and was a convener in the third and seventh sessions. The latter committee’s remit included foreign affairs, overseas-community affairs, defense, veterans’ policy, treaties, and matters concerning the relevant ministries and agencies. Committee proceedings provided a parliamentary setting for examining legislation and budgets and questioning executive officials about policy implementation; membership did not confer executive authority over diplomacy or military operations. (ly.gov.tw)

Hsiao’s parliamentary interests also included gender equality, immigrant rights, privacy rights, and gay rights, as recorded in her Asia Society biography. A specific legislative example was the 2006 draft Same-Sex Marriage Act, which the Legislative Yuan’s bill database identifies as a proposal by Hsiao and 38 other legislators. The proposal did not become law. In 2013, she was among 22 legislators supporting a separate proposal to amend the Civil Code’s family and inheritance provisions, alongside Cheng Li-chun, Yu Mei-nu, Lin Shu-fen, Tuan Yi-kang, and Chen Chi-mai. That proposal sought to make marriage and family terminology gender-neutral and provide equal adoption rights, including protection against adoption decisions based on sexual orientation or gender identity. These were legislative proposals concerning same-sex marriage, not laws enacted through Hsiao’s sponsorship at that time. (chinaboom.asiasociety.org)

Immigration and nationality rules formed another documented strand of her eighth-term work. In a parliamentary-office statement concerning an international review of Taiwan’s human-rights record, Hsiao advocated changing election legislation to expand naturalized immigrants’ opportunities to participate in local public office. She also announced her intention to remove the requirement that naturalization applicants provide proof of losing their original nationality, pointing to the risk of statelessness between renunciation and acquisition of Taiwanese citizenship. The statement records her reform objectives and proposed action, rather than establishing that those changes had already been enacted. (ly.gov.tw)

Hualien constituency politics

Hsiao’s local organizational work in Hualien County preceded her election as its constituency legislator. Her eighth-term Legislative Yuan biography, when she held a nationwide and overseas seat, listed her as director general of the Hello Hualien Association. The association provided a local organizational affiliation distinct from her national Democratic Progressive Party responsibilities and international political positions. Her subsequent constituency operation also had a separate physical presence: the ninth-term legislative directory listed both a parliamentary office in Taipei and a Hualien service office at 171 Guolian First Road in Hualien City. These records distinguish her locally based organization and constituent contact point from her work in the national legislature. (ly.gov.tw)

In the January 16, 2016 legislative election, Hsiao defeated incumbent Wang Ting-sheng, receiving 63,231 votes, or 53.77 percent, in the Hualien County constituency. She consequently moved from nationwide and overseas representation to a geographically defined constituency seat. Her ninth-term service ran from February 1, 2016, to January 31, 2020; the election date therefore preceded the beginning of her mandate. The constituency combined parliamentary representation with a continuing local service operation, rather than making her part of the county’s executive administration. (cna.com.tw)

Transport infrastructure was a specific component of her constituency programme. In her official 2016 election statement, she proposed a third track on the North-Link railway and double-tracking of the Hualien–Taitung line to increase capacity and operational flexibility. She also advocated updating railway booking systems, making information about remaining tickets more transparent, and assisting the county government with special trains for residents travelling home during holidays. These were campaign commitments and areas of advocacy, not evidence that she personally implemented railway construction or operated train services. Her committee assignments supported this policy emphasis: she served on the Transportation Committee in the first two sessions and again in sessions five through eight, including as a convener in the fifth session. (web.cec.gov.tw)

Agricultural work addressed processing, distribution, and farmers’ costs as well as production. In December 2016, she advocated an agricultural processing and marketing centre on industrial land beside Taiwan Sugar’s Guangfu sugar factory, seeking support from the Hualien–Taitung development fund. This was a proposed response to small farmers’ processing difficulties, rather than a completed facility at that date. In recorded parliamentary questioning, she also pressed the Council of Agriculture to improve refrigerated distribution for eastern Taiwan’s produce. Citing farmers’ accounts that leafy vegetables could pass through four or five transfers before reaching Taipei, she connected transport arrangements with deterioration, costs, and market access. The council’s chair, Chen Chi-chung, responded on the executive agency’s planned logistics measures. (cna.com.tw)

Her Economics Committee membership in the third and fourth sessions added an economic-policy dimension to this constituency work. Parliamentary exchanges also show attention to agricultural land rents: she questioned differences between publicly controlled landholding arrangements and sought coordination between the Council of Agriculture, Taiwan Sugar, and the Veterans Affairs Council. Alongside such policy interventions, her Hualien service office provided an identified local contact point for residents, separate from her parliamentary research office in Taipei. (ly.gov.tw)

International political networks

Hsiao served on the board of trustees of the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD) from 2003 to 2020. Her tenure began in the foundation’s establishment year: it formally came into being on June 17, 2003, following preparations initiated by Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2002 and legislative approval of its budget in January 2003. The foundation combined a domestic mission of strengthening democracy and human rights with an international mission of cooperating with democracy-support organizations. Its board brought together representatives of government, political parties, academia, nongovernmental organizations, and business, placing Hsiao’s trusteeship within a cross-sector institution rather than an exclusively Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) body. (english.president.gov.tw)

The TFD’s institutional mechanisms included research funding, conferences, publications, training, and partnerships with organizations abroad. At its first-anniversary ceremony in 2004, the Presidential Office recorded activities such as training legislative assistants, research on referendum mechanisms, publication of Taiwan Democracy Quarterly, and support for the World Movement for Democracy’s assembly. These activities supplied the organizational setting for Hsiao’s board service; her position was a trusteeship, not the foundation’s executive directorship. The foundation’s 2013 annual report further documented that trustees served three-year terms without remuneration and that more than half the board represented qualifying parliamentary parties, with seats allocated according to their representation in the legislature. (english.president.gov.tw)

Hsiao was secretary-general of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD) in 2004–2005. Established in Bangkok in 1993, CALD provided a regional platform for dialogue and cooperation among liberal and democratic political parties. Her secretariat work included planning activities with the network’s professional staff and partner organizations. On December 22, 2004, she visited its offices in Makati, Metro Manila, and met CALD executive director John Coronel and Friedrich Naumann Foundation resident representative Ronald Meinardus to discuss the 2005 program. The DPP then held CALD’s chairmanship, with Chen Shui-bian serving as chair in 2004–2005; Hsiao’s secretary-general position was distinct from that leadership office. (english.president.gov.tw)

She subsequently chaired CALD from 2018 to 2020, following Thailand’s Abhisit Vejjajiva and preceding Philippine senator Francis Pangilinan. The network’s activities during her chairmanship extended beyond electoral cooperation to policy exchange. A June 2019 program for its executive committee meeting and seminar-workshop in Seoul, for example, listed Hsiao as an opening speaker for discussions on smart cities and urban liveability, alongside representatives of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation and Liberal International. This was cooperation through a regional political-party network, rather than an intergovernmental negotiating forum. (cald.org)

At the global level, Hsiao served as a vice president of the bureau of Liberal International from 2005 to 2012. Liberal International’s own records confirm her election to its bureau in 2005, while CALD records describe her election by representatives of more than eighty political parties and service over three terms. The organization is an association of political parties, movements, and cooperating organizations, whose purposes include promoting liberal principles and facilitating cooperation and information exchange among members. Her vice presidency therefore concerned transnational party cooperation, not a diplomatic appointment or authority to represent Taiwan in state-to-state negotiations. The distinction remained relevant when she moved into official representation in 2020: Liberal International president Hakima el Haité sent congratulations on behalf of the bureau, expressing the organization’s continued support for Hsiao, her party, and Taiwan. (english.president.gov.tw)

Representative to the United States, 2020–2023

Hsiao served as a senior adviser at Taiwan’s National Security Council in 2020 before taking up the position of representative to the United States in July that year. The appointment moved her from an advisory role in Taipei to responsibility for Taiwan’s principal representative office in Washington. Her posting lasted until November 2023, spanning the final months of Donald Trump’s administration and most of the first three years of Joe Biden’s presidency. (english.president.gov.tw)

Hsiao headed the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO), based in Washington, D.C. Although frequently described as Taiwan’s “de facto ambassador,” her formal position was representative, rather than an ambassador accredited within a formal diplomatic relationship. The United States and Taiwan maintained unofficial relations, with TECRO and the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) serving as counterpart institutions. Under the Taiwan Relations Act framework, United States government dealings with Taiwan were generally conducted through AIT; TECRO was the authorized instrumentality on Taiwan’s side. This arrangement provided channels for government communication and bilateral agreements without establishing formal diplomatic relations. (time.com)

On January 20, 2021, Hsiao attended the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on the west front of the United States Capitol. She received a formal invitation from the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, the congressional body organizing the ceremony, rather than from the incoming administration. Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that she attended to convey congratulations on behalf of Taiwan’s government. The ceremony was scaled back because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her participation constituted a documented ceremonial engagement during the presidential transition, while the bilateral relationship continued to operate through its unofficial institutional framework. (en.mofa.gov.tw)

Her Washington work included engagement across the Democratic and Republican parties. In an interview published by TIME on June 13, 2024, after her posting had ended, Hsiao described cooperation with both sides of the American political divide as necessary to prevent Taiwan from becoming entangled in partisan differences. She identified strong, consistent and predictable support as the objective. The interview also reported her relationships across party lines; these contacts should be distinguished from any guarantee that successive administrations or congressional majorities would adopt identical Taiwan policies. (time.com)

On November 20, 2023, Hsiao reported to Foreign Minister Joseph Wu and formally submitted her resignation as representative. The ministry announced that the administrative process was expected to take several days and that Wu had authorized leave during the intervening period. She left the posting to become Lai Ching-te’s running mate on the Democratic Progressive Party presidential ticket. Alexander Yui, previously Taiwan’s representative to the European Union and Belgium, succeeded her; his appointment was announced on November 29, 2023. (mofa.gov.tw)

The 2024 vice-presidential election

On November 20, 2023, Lai Ching-te, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate and incumbent vice president, announced Hsiao Bi-khim as his running mate at a news conference in Taipei. Hsiao’s selection formed the party’s presidential–vice-presidential ticket for the January 2024 election and marked her return from diplomatic service to electoral politics. She had served as Taiwan’s representative to the United States since July 2020. At the announcement, Hsiao said that she and Lai shared commitments to defending Taiwan’s freedom and democracy, presenting these as common convictions underlying their candidacy. (shorenewsnetwork.com)

The election was governed by the joint-ticket mechanism in Article 2 of the Additional Articles of the Republic of China’s Constitution. Presidential and vice-presidential candidates registered together and appeared as a pair on the ballot; voters selected one pair rather than casting separate votes for the two offices. The pair receiving the highest number of votes was elected. Consequently, Hsiao did not contest a separate nationwide vice-presidential ballot: her election depended on the result obtained by the Lai–Hsiao ticket. The constitutional rule required a plurality, not an absolute majority, and did not require a runoff when the leading pair received less than half of the vote. (english.president.gov.tw)

Three tickets appeared on the final ballot. Lai and Hsiao represented the DPP as ticket number 2. Their opponents were Ko Wen-je and Wu Hsin-ying of the Taiwan People’s Party, listed as number 1, and Hou Yu-ih and Jaw Shau-kong of the Kuomintang, listed as number 3. Each ticket combined a presidential candidate with a designated vice-presidential candidate, so the competition among Hsiao, Wu, and Jaw was inseparable from the corresponding presidential contest. (web.cec.gov.tw)

Voting took place on January 13, 2024. The Central Election Commission’s official results recorded 5,586,019 votes for Lai and Hsiao, or 40.05 percent of valid votes. Hou and Jaw received 4,671,021 votes, or 33.49 percent, while Ko and Wu received 3,690,466 votes, or 26.46 percent. The Lai–Hsiao ticket therefore won a plurality rather than a majority. The commission recorded 19,548,531 eligible electors and 14,048,311 ballots cast, giving a turnout of 71.86 percent; 13,947,506 ballots were valid and 100,805 were invalid. The reported vote shares were calculated from valid ballots, rather than from all ballots cast or the entire eligible electorate. (en.mofa.gov.tw)

Following the election, Hsiao became vice-president-elect, a status distinct from holding the office during the transition. On May 20, 2024, she was sworn in as the Republic of China’s 16th-term vice president, alongside Lai as president. She subsequently accompanied Lai in receiving congratulations from visiting heads of state, special envoys, and senior officials attending the inauguration. That date marked the commencement of her vice-presidential service, rather than the January polling date. (english.president.gov.tw)

Vice presidency and official responsibilities

Hsiao Bi-khim took office as vice president on May 20, 2024, serving under President Lai Ching-te. The office is constitutionally distinct from the premiership: the vice president is the president’s successor, whereas the premier heads the Executive Yuan, which Article 53 of the Constitution identifies as the state’s highest administrative organ. Article 49 provides that, when the presidency becomes vacant, the vice president succeeds for the remainder of the presidential term; when the president is temporarily unable to perform the duties of office, the vice president acts as president. If both officeholders are unable to serve, the premier acts as president. The Additional Articles separately regulate simultaneous vacancies, requiring a new presidential and vice-presidential election while the premier serves in an acting capacity. These provisions distinguish succession to the presidency from temporarily exercising its functions. (english.president.gov.tw)

Hsiao’s routine official activities have included presenting presidential decisions without exercising the underlying presidential appointment power herself. On May 31, 2024, she presided over the press conference introducing Lai’s nominees for the fourteenth-term Examination Yuan: Chou Hung-hsien as president, Hsu Shu-shiang as vice president, and seven members. The Presidential Office’s parallel record identifies Lai as the nominating authority and records his request for confirmation by the Legislative Yuan. Hsiao’s function was to introduce the nominees and explain the selection criteria, including professionalism and representation; nomination, legislative consent, and appointment remained distinct institutional steps. (english.president.gov.tw)

A specific coordination assignment was her appointment as one of three deputy conveners of the Presidential Office’s Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience Committee, alongside Presidential Secretary-General Pan Men-an and National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu. Lai chaired its first meeting on September 26, 2024. The committee organized preparedness around five areas: civilian training and utilization; strategic supplies and distribution; energy and critical infrastructure; social welfare, medical care, and evacuation facilities; and protection of information, transportation, and financial networks. Its proceedings brought together government officials, businesses, religious organizations, and civil-society participants to consider how essential services could continue during disasters or emergencies. (english.president.gov.tw)

At that meeting, Lai assigned Hsiao to convene the groups responsible for energy and critical infrastructure, and for information, transportation, and financial-network protection. The groups were directed to exchange views monthly, including discussion of tabletop exercises, local drills, and connections with the Han Kuang military exercises. Hsiao also proposed developing a database of civilian specialists in plumbing and electrical engineering, cybersecurity, medicine, and professional disaster-response volunteering. These were preparedness and coordination responsibilities within a presidential committee, rather than a transfer to the vice presidency of the Executive Yuan’s administrative functions or the president’s constitutional military command. (english.president.gov.tw)

Her representative duties included receiving foreign legislators and attending ceremonial and domestic public events. On May 29, 2024, she met a United States congressional delegation led by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul; on August 29, she received a cross-party delegation from the Swedish-Taiwanese Parliamentarian Association. She delivered a video address on September 20 marking Belize’s forty-third independence anniversary and thirty-five years of diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Domestic engagements included the opening of Creative Expo Taiwan on August 26 and the Meet Taipei Startup Festival on November 22, placing cultural and economic events alongside her foreign-delegation meetings. (english.president.gov.tw)

Public diplomacy and stated international positions

Hsiao has used “cat warrior” as a public description of her diplomatic approach, contrasting it with the “wolf warrior” label applied to assertive Chinese diplomacy. At a reporters’ breakfast in Washington, D.C., on May 30, 2023, she explained the metaphor through cats’ adaptability, flexibility, ability to negotiate tightropes, and proverbial nine lives. Her official biography similarly associates the expression with nimbleness and treading softly while remaining firm. These descriptions present her preferred diplomatic style; they are not independent measurements of its effectiveness. (csmonitor.com)

Her public statements connect Taiwan’s international participation with cooperation among democratic societies. In an interview published by TIME on June 13, 2024, she identified strengthening Taiwan’s democracy as a central objective. Her subsequent remarks specified channels for international engagement: on July 30, 2024, following the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China summit, she thanked the organization for supporting Taiwan’s meaningful international participation and called for cooperation with global civil society on democratic resilience. On August 5, 2025, she thanked representatives of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies to the United Nations and other Geneva-based organizations for supporting its participation in international institutions. These remarks expressed priorities and acknowledged advocacy, rather than documenting new membership or recognition. (time.com)

On July 18, 2025, speaking to the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Taipei, Hsiao stated that Taiwan would “not provoke confrontation” with China and urged communication based on equality and respect. She criticized what she described as Beijing’s aggressive military posture and efforts to infiltrate and divide Taiwanese society. Alongside that criticism, she presented investment in self-defense as a means of deterring miscalculation and preventing conflict. The statements were made as Taiwan’s annual military exercises concluded; her characterizations of Beijing’s conduct were part of her stated position, not neutral descriptions adopted by the audience or reporting organizations. (apnews.com)

Her European outreach has included parliamentary contacts and discussion of shared security concerns. During her March 2024 visit to Lithuania as vice-president-elect, she met parliamentary speaker Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen and leaders from different parties. On July 7, 2025, meeting the Lithuania–Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group, she proposed exploring societal resilience and further cooperation. These examples show the specific interlocutors and subjects of engagement without attributing broader changes in European policy to her personal influence. (english.president.gov.tw)

Hsiao has also presented cultural exchange as a way to reach European audiences beyond political institutions. At the promotional press conference for the 2026 Taiwan Day program on August 31, 2026, she highlighted contemporary dance, traditional performance, and Taiwanese food as means of introducing the island’s varied everyday life. She identified participating groups including choreographer Ho Hsiao-mei’s dance company, Lei Sheng Traditional Arts Theater, and Taipei Gong Le Xuan, and thanked Austria, Poland, and Hungary for supporting Taiwanese culture. Her remarks emphasized civilian participation and sponsorship alongside government resources, framing performances and food as opportunities for direct interaction rather than claiming diplomatic recognition or measurable political gains. (president.gov.tw)

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