Young people in Taiwan are used to life with uncertainty when they are in China - they usually say the best situation for the time being, especially when there are some problems with the recent actions taken by the Trump administration.
"Can Taiwan continue to regard the United States as an ally?" said Chan Yu-Hsiang, 25, a graduate student at Taiwan University.
Chen's questions reflect an increasing concern about the reliability of the United States as its security partner Donald Trump. But critical comments and subvert trade relations have also been made.
In a Taiwan government poll released in March, the percentage of respondents who "absolutely" intervened by the U.S. military dropped from 19% a year ago to 14% during the Chinese invasion. Almost half of respondents said the U.S. military was unlikely to intervene, just like a poll conducted by the Brookings agency the same month.
According to the same poll by the Taiwan government, 36% of respondents said that under Trump, U.S. relations will get worse, up 12% since January.
Taiwan’s growing vigilance against the United States comes as pressure from China continues to rise, claiming that autonomous democracy is its own territory and does not exclude the use of force to achieve its unified goal. Beijing sent fighter planes and ships to the island, almost every day.
Last month, the Chinese military conducted large-scale exercises around Taiwan, a warning to the "separatist" forces. The Taiwan government warned that Beijing could hold more drills in the coming days as the island marked it as a year under President Lai Ching-te, which China described as a "separatist" and "troublemaker."
China rejected Lai's multiple negotiations, saying only Taiwan's 23 million people can determine its future. Beijing insists that the island's future is "never an internal matter of Taiwan", warning that if Taiwan authorities seek formal independence, they will "suffer from the Revelation."
The United States has no formal relationship with Taiwan, but its most important international supporter is bound by law to provide defensive weapons. On Monday, Taiwan tested ingested new rocket systems for the first time provided the new rocket system Ukraine also used against Russia.
Washington has long maintained a "strategic ambiguity" policy Whether the U.S. military will defend Taiwan from China’s attacks has given no clear answer in either way.
Trump shows no sign of a change in the policy. But he was upset with Taiwan and accused it of stealing semiconductor business from the United States and called on Taiwan to pay more for its defense and promised to do it.
Last month, he also slapped Taiwan with a 32% commodity tariff and exempted the chip industry, which constitutes a large part of Taiwan's economy, and the United States relies on the U.S. economy.
Taiwan said it would not retaliate against the United States and could conduct trade talks "at any time" and provide a package of zero tariffs on U.S. goods and increased U.S. investment.
The responsibility surprised Taiwan after state-backed chipmaker TSMC announced a plan to invest $100 million in the U.S. in March, which has already built multiple factories.
For Chen, this shows that even Taiwan’s “silicon shield”—the semiconductor industry that makes the island so essential to the global economy—is not enough to guarantee our support.
"If you keep giving Taiwan's last line of defense, the United States will take advantage of it, but they won't necessarily treat you well," he said.
"Why does Taiwan still believe that Trump will fall down?"
Although some U.S. officials and Taiwan military Pointing to 2027 - the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army of China - may be the timeline for China's offensive, and polls show that most people in Taiwan believe that an invasion is unlikely to occur in the next five years.
A survey by Taipei State University last year showed that more than 88% of Taiwan support maintaining the status quo, and Taiwan is actually a de facto independent country without formally declaring independence, a move that could risk a full-scale war with China.
This is especially true for Taiwan’s youngest voters.
He said that the Generation Z in Taiwan is “never pro-China compared to other generations, but their attitude towards Taiwan independence is not like millennials.
“Instead, we’re seeing younger generations take more career approaches to politics,” Nahman said.
He said young people in Taiwan were too young to radicalize amid political turmoil such as the island’s sunflower movement and the martial law era in 2014.
Nahman added that they do not want to "rock any major changes" in the Taiwan Strait, although the desire to reunify with mainland China remains "incredibly low".
Taiwan government poll found that more than one-third of respondents aged 18 to 29 see China as a "main threat" to the island Although Beijing has won them priority policies for studying and working in the mainland, as well as various activities including sponsored travel, internships and cultural activities.
Last year, more than 4 million people in Taiwan visited mainland China for tourism, study or work last year, an increase of 54.3% year-on-year, according to official data released by Chinese authorities. According to the Taiwan Affairs Office, young people are the "most active" groups.
"You are Chinese too. You are our family," Chen said, who and other students from Taiwan were told by a tour guide during a Beijing-sponsored trip to Henan Province in China last year.
Chen Pin-Yin, a national student at the National University of the Arts, said that while Beijing uses such efforts to strengthen its sovereignty claims, the measures are "quite good" to allow young people in Taiwan to visit and explore different places.
Chen, 21, also has a career status, and he said that not everything is related to politics. She said young people in Taiwan are mainly concerned with practical issues such as the cost of living and their job prospects.
Last summer, Chen conducted a one-month internship in the southern China province of Huonan, part of the program Chinese organizer.
For Chen, this experience was a "dream come true", and he said that China's TV industry is "highly developed". She said she plans to pursue her master's degree in mainland China next year, and she is also considering working there.
Chen said the most important thing is to "avoid war." “I hope the United States can play the role of mediator when tensions are high.”