US president-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday named US Representative Mike Waltz, a vocal supporter of arms sales to Taiwan who has called China an “existential threat,” as his national security advisor, and on Thursday named US Senator Marco Rubio, founding member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China — a global, cross-party alliance to address the challenges that China poses to the rules-based order — as his secretary of state.
Trump’s appointments, including US Representative Elise Stefanik as US ambassador to the UN, who has been a strong supporter of Taiwan in the US Congress, and Robert Lighthizer as US trade representative, who was instrumental in the US-China trade dispute during Trump’s first administration, indicate that competing with China would not just be among the Trump administration’s highest priorities, but the organizing principle of US statecraft.
It also indicates that the US would continue its robust support for Taiwan.
The appointments demonstrate that competing with China and revitalizing the US’ technology and industrial sectors would be a high priority of the Trump administration.
Rubio has been a leading figure calling for the US to merge its economic and foreign policies in light of Beijing’s mercantilism.
His vision was most recently set out in a September report released by his office titled “The World China Made: ‘Made in China 2025’ Nine Years Later.”
He said it was intended as a “wakeup call about how serious the threat we face has become. No longer can we fall back on old dogmas and stale talking points.”
Taiwan should be proactive in helping in ways it can. As Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said last week, Taiwan’s chip sector can help fulfill Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan. This approach sends the right message.
Leading figures in the Republican Party, such as Waltz and Rubio, believe that the US’ strategic “pivot to Asia” first announced by then-US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton in November 2011 has yet to be realized, as successive US administrations have neither fully prioritized Asia nor taken the threat China poses to its interests seriously.
The US’ distraction by wars in Europe and the Middle East has emboldened Beijing to ramp up its coercion of “American allies and partners, such as Taiwan and the Philippines,” Waltz and Georgetown University professor Matthew Kroenig said in a recent article for The Economist.
They advocated bringing those wars to a “swift conclusion” so the US can focus on what they say is its primary mission of restoring deterrence in Asia.
Trump’s appointments are a signal that his foreign policy team take Waltz’s and Rubio’s arguments about deterrence seriously. However, this must be matched with a similar seriousness at home about the nation’s defenses.
Reports this week that Taiwan has contacted the incoming US administration about procuring up to US$15 billion in military hardware is a positive signal of intent.
Legislators should ensure there is no repeat of fiscal budgets being held up for too long, blocking important defense spending. It was only this week that legislators agreed to review the budget after weeks of impasse. The incoming Republican administration would prioritize actions over words, and the procurement of hard power would be valued over statements.
Trump’s foreign policy would be predicated on allies stepping up and sharing more of the defense cost burden so the US can focus on its primary challenge. Doing so would be a positive development for the US and its allies, as it would put the international order on a more stable and long-term footing. In this, Taiwan has an important role to play.
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