Taiwan should request arms purchases worth billions of US dollars from the US and create more jobs in the nation through semiconductor-related investments, which would placate US president-elect Donald Trump, an academic said.
“Those two things seem to be the most likely ways for Taiwan to diminish Trump’s complaints, and also reduce the fear that he will use Taiwan as a bargaining chip,” said Thomas Shattuck last month, a senior program manager at University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House policy research center.
“Putting together a multibillion dollar package [of US arms purchases] within the first six months” would be a “great way” for Taiwan to signal to Trump that his concerns have been heard, Shattuck said.
Photo: Reuters
Taiwan also needs to remind Trump that Taipei “pays more” than the US’ NATO allies for its own defense, Shattuck said.
The nation’s defense budget exceeds NATO’s target of 2 percent of GDP, which Trump had previously talked about, he said.
Trump on his campaign trail said that Taiwan “stole” the US’ chip business and needed to “pay us for defense.”
During his first term from 2017 to 2021, Trump did not make those “accusations,” Shattuck said, adding that it had made lawmakers and others in Taiwan a “little afraid” about a second Trump term.
However, “Trump and his team understand the strategic nature of keeping Taiwan as Taiwan, keeping the alliances strong,” he said.
Trump’s “very pro-Taiwan” picks for top roles in his administration, such as US Senator Marco Rubio as US secretary of state, further suggest that Taiwan would not “get sold out for a big trade deal with China” during the next four years, Shattuck said.
“If the big great power competition between the US and China continues, you don’t sell Taiwan out on day one or the last day in the office,” the expert added.
Shattuck, who is also a non-resident research fellow at both the Global Taiwan Institute and the Foreign Policy Research Institute, said that “Taiwan keeps China boxed in,” due to its geographical location.
The US’ strategic interests in the region should dissuade Washington from putting “any deals on the table with any country to give up a country or give up a piece of land or do any sort of thing,” he said.
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