Taipei, Taiwan - Taiwan’s senior officials said Taiwan has confidence in the U.S. support, despite widespread concerns that U.S. President Donald Trump could use East Asian democracy as a bargaining chip to deal with China.
"Taiwan has a very strong and strong relationship with the United States, and Taiwan has received cross-party support from the U.S. Congress," said Chui Chui-Cheng, Minister of the Mainland Affairs Committee, in an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera.
Unlike the United States and China, “the relationship between the United States and Taiwan is unprecedented,” Chiu said, whose cabinet-level portfolio covers Taiwan’s relationship with mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.
Chiu still says it is too early to fully assess the impact of the second Trump administration.
"The Taiwan government will continue to observe the Trump administration because it has been less than three months," he said through an interpreter.
“The Taiwan government has a very consistent position in protecting our sovereignty, our freedom and democracy.”
Trump made headlines in Taiwan in 2016 when he accepted a congratulatory call from then-Tewani President Tsai Ing-wen, overturning a long-term convention that the U.S. and Taiwan presidents would not communicate directly.
Relations between the United States and Taiwan continue to deepen throughout Trump’s first term and under former U.S. President Joe Biden, which has visited the island in recent years many delegations of Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
However, since returning to the White House, Trump has launched a series of broad areas on the island, although U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio remains a staunch supporter of Taiwan.
The U.S. president has accused Taiwan of stealing the U.S. chip industry, believing Taipei should pay for its defense and threatening Taiwan’s top Taiwanese chip maker Taiwan’s Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC), to “100% tax” if it does not expand U.S. manufacturing.
Trump also hit Taiwan with a "countdown" tariff of 32% (until July) and expanded existing steel and aluminum tariffs, among other moves.
Like most countries, the United States has no formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, which China believes is part of its territory.
But Washington is committed to supporting the island’s defense under the 1979 law, although the legislation does not specify an obligation to directly interfere with the conflict.
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When Taipei took a to-be-watch approach, Trump's "America First" rhetoric and politics attracted the attention of many Taiwanese people that he could give up on Taiwan to win the discount for trade negotiations with China.
In a survey released by the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation in March, only 39.2% of respondents said they believe the United States will send troops to defend Taiwan, a climax of 65% higher than the all-time high in 2021.
Despite these fears, Chiu said he doesn't think Washington will ever accept Beijing's "unreasonable demands" to change its relations with Taiwan.
Although the ruling Communist Party has never directly controlled the island, China has promised to "unify" Taiwan and mainland China.
Chiu said Taiwan could provide the United States with a lot from its strategic position in Washington’s first island chain defense strategy, designed to examine China’s expansion in the Pacific to its position as the world’s foremost chip maker.
"We think we can show the American people and the American people that Taiwan is a very good companion and that we are irreplaceable," Chiu said.
Chiu's cabinet-level portfolio oversees the planning and implementation of Taiwan's cross-border policies, although Beijing has officially acted with Taipei since the Democratic Progressive Party came to power in 2016.
Beijing has considered the DPP’s “separatists” and has intensified military, economic and diplomatic pressures on the island over the past nine years.
Chiu said the Taiwan government continues to try to communicate with Beijing through official channels and to contact intermediaries in the business world, nonprofit sector and academia.
However, Chiu criticized China's communication with the opposition Kuomintang (KMT), which he described as part of Beijing's divide and rule and the "unification front" strategy adopted against Taiwan.
The term “Manchester United Front” refers to the activities carried out by the official departments and party members of the Communist Party of China to promote the CCP agenda – including persuading 23.4 million citizens of Taiwan, although most Taiwanese support the status quo, although polls show that unification with China is inevitable and inevitable.
"We have been facing the joint tactics, infiltration and division of Taiwanese society. They are everywhere," Chiu said.
Taiwan’s National Security Agency prosecuted 64 people for espionage (mainly active military and veterans) in 2024, up from 48 in 2023 and 10 in 2022.
Other threats are more pronounced, such as the escalation and action of Chinese military exercises near Taiwan over the past five years, Chiu said.
Chiu said that in 2024 alone, China launched more than 5,000 military flights in the direction of Taiwan, including about 3,000 people crossing the "middle line" of the Taiwan Strait, an informal border that divides the strategic waterway between China and Taiwan.
He said Beijing also sent more than 2,500 warships to Taiwan, some of which entered continuous waters, referring to areas adjacent to the territorial sea and extending 24 nautical miles (44 kilometers) from the shore.
Chiu said he was most worried about the leadership style of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
After Xi Jinping lifted his term limit in 2018, he served in his unprecedented third term and is sometimes regarded as the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong, the founder of modern China.
"The XI regime is a new type of authoritarianism. He has been inciting fanatical nationalism, which is why we see military hegemony and wolf warrior diplomacy."
"At present, mainland China is not a very reasonable decision-making party, and this kind of nationalism poses a huge threat to its neighbors," Chiu said.
He said: "If you ask what I care about the most, I would say it is the essence of the XI regime."