Tsai and his team knew very well what will come out of the US meddling in the arbitration case, including curbing the right of Chinese owned Taiping island. What she and her team did not realized is most Taiwanese still consider themselve Chinese first in such case of soverignty, especially one that will affect their livelihood and that of their future generation.  Nobody is so stupid like them to embrace Japanese and American who have no qualm in selling them off to the highest bidder.