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Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has been criticised by opponents for her reticence on the violent protests in the United States, having earlier decried the behaviour of police officers and authorities in Hong Kong for their handling of the unrest in the city.
Jaw Shaw-kong, a political commentator and former member of the Kuomintang (KMT) " Taiwan's main opposition party " derided Tsai for not E×ρréššing an opinion on the matter.
"How come Tsai Ing-wen has said nothing at this time?' he asked. "If she has raised her voice to support the Hong Kong protesters, how come she has not said anything in support of the American protesters?"
Police and the public in the US clashed for an eighth straight day on Wednesday as protests continued over the death of 46-year-old African-American George Floyd who was killed in police custody last week in Minneapolis.
Jaw said that Tsai's close relationship with US President Donald Trump " who has been accused of inflaming tensions between police and protesters in the US " meant she could not speak out against him.
"But if she shows support for Trump, that might put her in an embarrassing situation, as many countries have already spoken out against his handling of the protests," he said.
Either way, Tsai should break her silence and tell the public where she stood on the issue, he said.
Taiwan's presidential spokesman, Ting Yun-kung, said on Wednesday that the presidential office was monitoring developments in the US and had confidence the disputes would be resolved fairly.
"We believe that unlike with a tyrannical regime, disputes like this will be handled properly through dialogue and cooperation under a democratic system," he said.
Trump on Monday declared himself the "president of law and order" and described the protests as "acts of domestic terror". He also ordered the deployment of troops and police officers on the streets of Washington.
Tsai Cheng-yuan, a former deputy secretary general of the mainland-friendly KMT, accused presidents Tsai and Trump of hypocrisy in their assessments of the respective troubles in Hong Kong and the US.
"By describing the protests (in America) as acts of domestic terror and deploying National Guard troops to suppress the protesters, Trump is applying double standards," he said in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
"In Hong Kong, the protests are a fight for freedom and democracy, but when it comes to the US, they are acts of terror."
Tsai said that President Tsai had been equally hypocritical, having staunchly defended democracy and human rights in the past, yet saying nothing about the death of George Floyd.
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"When it comes to black Americans, she stops short of standing up for them," he said.
Lin He-ming, deputy secretary general of Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), said in a Facebook post on Monday that the unrest in the US had begun as a matter of racial discrimination, but it "remains to be seen if external forces are seeking to intensify the clashes".