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In its recently publicized official foreign-policy platform, the US Republican Party, which fields former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney as its presidential candidate, mentions at length Taiwan, traditionally by far the most prominent pawn in the US-China relationship, while the Democrats trying to secure President Barack Obama's second term handle the island much like an afterthought. 

But although at first glance it seems a future Republican administration would take a more confrontational attitude toward Beijing, offering more bargaining chips to Taipei in cross-strait horse-trading, neither of Taiwan's two main political parties is necessarily keeping its fingers crossed for Romney.