Representative to the UK Vincent Yao (姚金祥) expressed confidence that US bipartisan support for Taiwan would continue, regardless of who wins the US presidential election in November.
“We always get strong bipartisan support from no matter which party in the US,” Yao told Sky News program The World with Yalda Hakim which was aired on Thursday.
“We want to make sure no matter who wins ... this year in the US elections, the government, the administration will continue its policy” toward Taiwan in accordance with the Taiwan Relations Act, which commits the US to provide Taiwan with the weapons it needs to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability, he said.
Photo: Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times
Asked whether Taiwan is concerned about the possibility of former US president Donald Trump taking office again, Yao said that while Trump might think otherwise, his national security team was “very supportive of Taiwan.”
Chatham House distinguished fellow Robin Niblett said that Trump “tends to take everything first through the trade lens,” so he might take issues with Taiwan’s billions of Us dollars of trade surplus with the US.
However, if Trump wins the election, his administration is likely to “prioritize China as the enemy,” which would be supported by both Republicans and Democrats, he said.
It would be impossible for the US to be tough on China and Taiwan at the same time, so “in the end, he’s [Trump is] gonna have a party that’s going to be really treating China as the enemy,” he said.
Taiwan has been shifting its foreign investment strategy in the past few years largely away from China and to the EU and the US, which is “quite clever,” he said.
Program host Hakim also discussed China’s threat toward Taiwan, saying it is “arguably not getting much attention in the context of the war in the Middle East and Ukraine.”
As more than 90 percent of the most advanced chips are produced in Taiwan, an invasion “could have colossal global implications,” she said, adding that some estimate that US$2 trillion worth of global economic activity might be threatened.
Taiwanese showed determination and “calmly elected their own leader,” despite facing “unprecedented pressure from China,” Yao said, referring to the presidential and legislative elections on Jan. 13.
Beijing might realize through Russia’s war in Ukraine that “using military force alone cannot coerce Taiwan and the rest of the world to accept its so-called ‘one China’ principle,” he said.
The Ukraine war, on the other hand, has made Taipei acutely aware of the need to boost its asymmetric warfare capabilities by working with international partners and developing its indigenous defense industry, he said.
Taiwan also needs to build an all-civilian defense system and “beef up the determination and resilience of our own people,” he added.
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