On June 16, the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing on US-Taiwan relations, entitled “Why Taiwan Matters.” The meeting and the testimony from four US experts on relations with Taiwan produced quite an amazing bipartisan consensus on the present status and the way forward. Most members of the US Congress and all the presenters emphasized that US-Taiwan relations rested on a solid basis, reiterating that the Taiwan Relations Act and shared democratic values were the cornerstones of the relationship. However, there was general disappointment that ties had been allowed to drift.
Former US deputy assistant secretary of state Randy Schriver said that the administration of US President Barack Obama, like previous administrations, “does not have high enough aspirations for Taiwan.” Washington must be more creative and move away from the image that Taiwan is a “problem” to be managed as a subset of its relations with China.
June Teufel Dreyer, a professor at the University of Miami, said Chinese strategists view Taiwan as a stepping stone for reaching China’s larger goal of controlling sea lanes and resources in the Western Pacific. She emphasized that a free and democratic Taiwan was essential and criticized President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration for drifting toward Beijing “at the cost of erosion in Taiwan’s democracy.”
Nancy Tucker, a professor at Georgetown University, urged Congress to become more active in promoting the positive development of US-Taiwan relations. She reiterated that Beijing has continued to deploy missiles to threaten Taiwan despite the present relaxation in cross-strait tensions, and cautioned that it could easily revert to a more aggressive approach. She said Washington must indicate it is willing to work with whatever leadership is elected in Taiwan, sending a clear message that its democracy is here to stay.
US-Taiwan Chamber of Commerce president Rupert Hammond--Chambers decried the lack of ambition and leadership of the US government in relations with Taiwan. He — like all the other presenters — strongly urged the Obama administration to move forward with the sale of new F-16s to Taipei, saying the continued US freeze on arms sales risked legitimizing China’s reliance on military coercion to settle disputes.
All the presenters cautioned against recent proposals that the US reduce its commitment to Taiwan. US Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen agreed, saying: “This [a reduced commitment to Taiwan] would be a terrible mistake which would have far-reaching ramifications about how the US treats its democratic allies — its friends.”
So, the signal from Congress is clear: Washington’s ties with Taiwan have been allowed to slip and more vigor and enthusiasm need to be put into the relationship. The Obama administration needs to move ahead with the sale of the F-16s and move away from self-imposed restrictions.
High-level contacts are the essence of international relations and the fact that Chinese leaders are given the red carpet treatment in Washington, while elected leaders from Taiwan are not even allowed to visit the US capital is still one of the most jarring images around. Why can’t US officials meet their counterparts from a democratic Taiwan, while large US delegations travel to Beijing to hobnob with counterparts in a rather repressive regime?
If the US does not shore up its ties with Taipei, Washington risks marginalizing the freedom-loving Taiwanese, who will drift further in China’s direction. The Obama administration must act to stay true to the basic values it supposedly stands for.
Nat Bellocchi served as US ambassador to Botswana and is a former chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan. The views expressed in this article are his own.
The conflict in the Middle East has been disrupting financial markets, raising concerns about rising inflationary pressures and global economic growth. One market that some investors are particularly worried about has not been heavily covered in the news: the private credit market. Even before the joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, global capital markets had faced growing structural pressure — the deteriorating funding conditions in the private credit market. The private credit market is where companies borrow funds directly from nonbank financial institutions such as asset management companies, insurance companies and private lending platforms. Its popularity has risen since
The Donald Trump administration’s approach to China broadly, and to cross-Strait relations in particular, remains a conundrum. The 2025 US National Security Strategy prioritized the defense of Taiwan in a way that surprised some observers of the Trump administration: “Deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority.” Two months later, Taiwan went entirely unmentioned in the US National Defense Strategy, as did military overmatch vis-a-vis China, giving renewed cause for concern. How to interpret these varying statements remains an open question. In both documents, the Indo-Pacific is listed as a second priority behind homeland defense and
In an op-ed published in Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) said that Taiwan should not have to choose between aligning with Beijing or Washington, and advocated for cooperation with Beijing under the so-called “1992 consensus” as a form of “strategic ambiguity.” However, Cheng has either misunderstood the geopolitical reality and chosen appeasement, or is trying to fool an international audience with her doublespeak; nonetheless, it risks sending the wrong message to Taiwan’s democratic allies and partners. Cheng stressed that “Taiwan does not have to choose,” as while Beijing and Washington compete, Taiwan is strongest when
US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) are expected to meet this month in Paris to prepare for a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). According to media reports, the two sides would discuss issues such as the potential purchase of Boeing aircraft by China, increasing imports of US soybeans and the latest impacts of Trump’s reciprocal tariffs. However, recent US military action against Iran has added uncertainty to the Trump-Xi summit. Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) called the joint US-Israeli airstrikes and the
RSS