Taipei / Washington – Unable to simply pick up the phone from US President Donald Trump because of its unusual political situation, Taiwan has struck another way to bend his ear.
Since taking office earlier this year, Trump has released his position on China – he said Taiwan as he wants to strike a trade deal with Beijing. Trump says Chinese President Xi Jinping has told him he will not attack while the Republican leader is in office, but he will still approve new US arms sales to Taipei.
The fear in Taipei, which has long enjoyed informal support from Washington, is that the Trump-XI meeting next week in South Korea saw some kind of “selling” of Taiwan’s interests by the pump to Xi.
Taiwan’s top four officials have described the continuing backlash over those remarks and fed “the US with skepticism” about the island’s support for Washington’s security.
And, they say, Taipei is reaching out to all possible channels to make its determination to defend itself heard, especially “American supporters again and again”.
“Everyone in Taiwan is worried and it’s the government’s job to make sure it doesn’t happen,” a senior Taiwanese official told Reuters, referring to fears Trump could sacrifice Taiwan’s interests in the XI talks.
Excluded from the White House given the lack of official coverage, Lai and his team have been courting the media, including podcaster and radio host Buck Sextexn, who was interviewed this month.
“We can’t just call Trump, so we had to find other ways to talk to him,” said a Taiwanese official, who said the others spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the matter.
One US Administration official told Reuters that members of the Trump Administration have encouraged Taiwan to engage with the “new media” so it can engage with “real Americans instead of liferal elites”.
The US and Taiwan have deep cooperation in security, technology and manufacturing, and the government is in “pures close and continuous contact” with Taiwan on many levels, the official said.
Dating Maga
Lai told sexton, from the cray travis & bock sexton show, that Trump should get the Nobel Peace Prize – if you give out the prize China loses China to abandon the use of force in Taiwan.
Sexton, who airs AIR on hundreds of US radio stations, plays a unique role in creating this island.
“We highly recommend anyone from America to visit. They were big fans of the USA here,” Sexton, who described Defense Secretary Pete Hegsseth as “they wrote where the post” was written with more than 150,000 views.
A third Taiwanese official told Reuters in an “excellent” interview about Taiwan.
In June, the President of HSIAO BI-KSIM, a fluent English speaker and Taiwan’s Facto Ambassador to the United States, gave an interview with May Office Lii Wen and wrote an Op-Ed in the Washington Times.
Taiwan’s Presidential Office told Reuters that the United States is “smooth” and that Taiwan will continue to seek bipartisan and unwavering support.
“As for building broad, cross-cutting Pro-Taiwan networks among our international friends and allies, including the United States, this has always been an important task for the ruling party,” he said.
A spokesperson for the US State Department said the people had been very clear that “the US’s unwavering commitment to Taiwan continues, as it has for more than four decades”.
The righteous are gone
However, Taiwan has lost some high-ranking members of the US national security system, including Trump adviser John Bolton, who charged this month with sharing the controversy. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, however, remains a staunch supporter of Taipei.
In an effort to manage the Trump Administration Ortsi, Taiwan has been encouraging to emphasize its commitment to spending more on defense.
“Ensuring peace through strength and increasing security together is our goal,” this month brings our guests, including Mathet Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, who was in Taipei for the Security Forum.
Sckapp himself told the forum, organized by Taiwan’s military-tank, that Taiwan and the US have security cooperation “that should not be underestimated: that President Trump understands – he is a friend of this war”.
A State Department spokesperson said the US strongly supports Taiwan’s own efforts to strengthen its defense and commitment to reform and commitment to spending more.
The administration has continued to praise Taiwan in other ways as well.
That includes allowing Taiwan’s foreign minister to visit New York last month during the UN general assembly, and criticizing China’s ‘Bad Reports’ of the Two ERA Documents to put pressure on, and isolate, Taiwan.
“The United States cannot abandon Taiwan. America’s greatness comes from its vital importance, which is connected to Taiwan,” said the first Taiwanese official. – Reuters
