A high-ranking member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) visited my office for a friendly discussion about the numerous difficulties in US-China relations. We talked about a number of issues — some of them very difficult — but even in that informal setting, Taiwan was a non-negotiable “core interest” of the party, with no place in the discussion.
The US should no longer accept these terms when talking to China. If we accept the false narrative that Taiwan is somehow “off-limits,” we are implicitly accepting the party’s lie that Taiwan’s status is a domestic matter, and we are contributing to Taiwan’s marginalization.
It is time that the US, China and the rest of the world treat Taiwan as Taiwan deserves to be treated.
Taiwan exists today as a sovereign state, a status it has earned through the mandate of its people, its democratic institutions and its stewardship of personal freedoms and human rights.
Taiwan is a state and treating this fact as if it is off-limits in international affairs is simply a refusal to acknowledge reality.
The facts are self-evident: China’s authoritarian government, dominated by the CCP, has never ruled Taiwan.
Today, Taiwan is a flourishing democracy with its own economy, education system, military, sovereign borders, political parties, national anthem and flag.
Taiwan is one of the US’ largest trading partners, a leader in high-tech manufacturing and a model contributor to the international community, with an especially distinguished record in public health crises.
With overwhelming bipartisan consensus, the US Congress passed the veto-proof Taiwan Relations Act to defend Taiwan from invasion and to protect its de facto sovereignty — creating a 40-year alliance relationship in all but name.
The CCP tries to obscure this reality, because Taiwan’s existence is a threat to the party’s hold on power. The party stokes grievances against former colonial powers to shore up its legitimacy.
Admitting the independent success of a place once ruled by Imperial Japan would undercut the party’s false version of modern Chinese history, in which the party saved China from colonial abuse.
Taiwan is living proof that freedom and prosperity are not mutually exclusive — putting the lie to the false choice that the party imposes on the 1.3 billion people of China.
The CCP is afraid of free-thinking people with the freedom of expression, freedom of thought, freedom to choose their leaders and freedom to succeed.
Because of this fear, China has bullied the world into believing that Taiwan is not a country but some other undefined thing.
However, the truth is right in front of our eyes and it is time the world began treating Taiwan as it deserves.
I told the visiting CCP official that, as an American citizen, I view Taiwan as an independent country and believe that most US citizens and members of our government feel the same way.
The US Congress will stand firm with Taiwan. We will honor our defensive military supply commitment and will work toward achieving full diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
Next year marks the 40th anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act. In the ensuing decades, Taiwan has risen from a backwater controlled by an authoritarian, exiled military regime to become a model democracy.
After 40 years, it is time we updated our policy — making it consistent with present-day reality would be a good place to start.
Taiwan is a nation, and it is time to embrace and recognize this fact.
Ted Yoho is the US Representative for Florida’s Third Congressional District. He serves on the House Agriculture Committee as well as the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where he is also chairman of the Asia and Pacific Subcommittee.
In late January, Taiwan’s first indigenous submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), completed its first submerged dive, reaching a depth of roughly 50m during trials in the waters off Kaohsiung. By March, it had managed a fifth dive, still well short of the deep-water and endurance tests required before the navy could accept the vessel. The original delivery deadline of November last year passed months ago. CSBC Corp, Taiwan, the lead contractor, now targets June and the Ministry of National Defense is levying daily penalties for every day the submarine remains unfinished. The Hai Kun was supposed to be
Reports about Elon Musk planning his own semiconductor fab have sparked anxiety, with some warning that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) could lose key customers to vertical integration. A closer reading suggests a more measured conclusion: Musk is advancing a strategic vision of in-house chip manufacturing, but remains far from replacing the existing foundry ecosystem. For TSMC, the short-term impact is limited; the medium-term challenge lies in supply diversification and pricing pressure, only in the long term could it evolve into a structural threat. The clearest signal is Musk’s announcement that Tesla and SpaceX plan to develop a fab project dubbed “Terafab”
Most schoolchildren learn that the circumference of the Earth is about 40,000km. They do not learn that the global economy depends on just 160 of those kilometers. Blocking two narrow waterways — the Strait of Hormuz and the Taiwan Strait — could send the economy back in time, if not to the Stone Age that US President Donald Trump has been threatening to bomb Iran back to, then at least to the mid-20th century, before the Rolling Stones first hit the airwaves. Over the past month and a half, Iran has turned the Strait of Hormuz, which is about 39km wide at
The ongoing Middle East crisis has reinforced an uncomfortable truth for Taiwan: In an increasingly interconnected and volatile world, distant wars rarely remain distant. What began as a regional confrontation between the US, Israel and Iran has evolved into a strategic shock wave reverberating far beyond the Persian Gulf. For Taiwan, the consequences are immediate, material and deeply unsettling. From Taipei’s perspective, the conflict has exposed two vulnerabilities — Taiwan’s dependence on imported energy and the risks created when Washington’s military attention is diverted. Together, they offer a preview of the pressures Taiwan might increasingly face in an era of overlapping geopolitical
RSS