Taiwan, Taiwan – Taiwan has faith in US support, the best officials said despite widespread concerns about the island that President Donald Trump could use East Asian democracy as a negotiation tip in his deal with China.
“Taiwan and the United States have very strong and solid ties. Taiwan supports partisan support from the US Congress,” Chiu Juchen, Minister of the Council of Mainland Affairs, said in an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera.
Unlike the US and China, “the US and Taiwan have unprecedented close ties,” he says, saying its cabinet-level portfolio covers Taiwan’s relationship with mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.
Still, Chiu said it was too early to fully assess the impact of the second Trump administration.
“The Taiwanese government will continue to observe the Trump administration after less than three months,” he said through an interpreter.
“The Taiwanese government has a very consistent position to protect our sovereignty, freedom and democracy.”
Trump made a headline in Taiwan in 2016, accepting a congratulatory call from then-President Tsai Ying Wen, overturning a long-standing convention in which we and the Taiwanese president did not communicate directly.
US-Taiwan relations continue to deepen under Trump’s first term and former US president Joe Biden, with many delegations of Democrats and Republican lawmakers visiting the island in recent years.
However, since returning to the White House, Trump has launched a series of broadsides on the island, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio continuing to be a Taiwanese supporter.
The US president has accused Taiwan of stealing the US chip industry, arguing that Taipei should pay for its own defense, and threatened Taiwanese chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturers (TSMC) with a “100% tax” if it does not expand its US manufacturing industry.
Trump also struck Taiwan with a 32% “mutual” tariff that was suspended until July, expanding tariffs on existing steel and aluminum in exports, among other initiatives.
Like most countries, the US does not have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan. This means that China considers a portion of its territory.
However, Washington is committed to supporting the island’s defense under the 1979 law, which does not specify an obligation to directly intervene in the dispute.
While Taipei adopted the waiting approach, Trump’s “America-first” rhetoric and politics raised concerns among many Taiwanese people that they could abandon Taiwan in order to win concessions in trade talks with China.
A survey released by the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation in March found that only 39.2% of respondents believe the US will send troops to protect Taiwan from a 2021 record high of 65%.
Despite these fears, Qiu said he believes Washington will never accept “irrational demands” from Beijing to change the terms of its relations with Taiwan.
China has promised to “reintegrate” Taiwan with mainland China by force if necessary, but the ruling Communist Party has never directly controlled the island.
Chiu said Taiwan needs to offer much to the US, from its strategic position within Washington’s first island chain defense strategy aimed at checking China’s expansion in the Pacific to its position as the world’s most important chipmaker.
“We think we can show the people of the US and the people of the US that Taiwan is such a great partner and we are irreplaceable,” Chiu said.
Chiu’s cabinet-level portfolio oversees the planning and implementation of Taiwan’s cross-regulation policy, but Beijing has officially been inactive with Taipei since the Democratic Progressive Party came to power in 2016.
Beijing has seen the DPP as a “separatist” and has been intensifying military, economic and diplomatic pressure on the island over the past nine years.
United Front Tactics
Chiu said the Taiwanese government continues to try to communicate with Beijing through official channels and is in touch through intermediaries in the business, non-profit sector and academia.
However, Qiu criticized China’s communication with opposition Kuo Mintan (KMT). This was characterized as part of Beijing’s division and domination adopted against Taiwan, and as a “Unification Strategy” tactics.
The term “Unified Front” refers to both the official wing of China’s Communist Party and the activities carried out by party members to promote the CCP agenda. This convinces Taiwan’s 23.4 million citizens that they will be in exile that unity with China is inevitable.
“We are constantly facing unified tactics, invasions and divisions in Taiwanese society. They are everywhere,” Chiu said.
Taiwan’s National Security Agency indicted 48 people in 2023, active members of primarily military and veterans, and between 10 and 64 people in 2022 for spying.
Other threats will soon become clear, Chiu said. For example, the escalation of Chinese military exercises and operations near Taiwan over the past five years.
China launched more than 5,000 military flights in Taiwan’s direction in 2024 alone, including around 3,000 across the “central line” of the Taiwan Strait, an informal border that divides China-Taiwan’s strategic waterways.
Beijing also sent over 2,500 warships in the direction of Taiwan, some of which entered the successive seas, he said.
Qiu said he is most concerned about China’s President Xi Jinping’s leadership style.
After eliminating the term limit in 2018, XI, serving an unprecedented third term, is sometimes considered the most powerful Chinese leader since modern China’s founder Mao Zedong.
“The XI administration is a new type of authoritarianism. He has incited fanatic nationalism, which is why he sees military hegemony and the diplomacy of wolves warriors,” Chiu said.
“National China is not currently a very rational decision-making party. This nationalism poses a major threat to our neighboring countries,” Qiu said.
“If you ask me what interests me most, you’ll say that’s the essence of the XI administration,” he said.
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