It is difficult not to agree with a few points stated by Christian Whiton in his article, “How Taiwan Lost Trump,” and yet the main idea is flawed.
I am a Polish journalist who considers Taiwan her second home. I am conservative, and I might disagree with some social changes being promoted in Taiwan right now, especially the push for progressiveness backed by leftists from the West — we need to clean up our mess before blaming the Taiwanese. However, I would never think that those issues should dominate the West’s judgement of Taiwan’s geopolitical importance. The question is not whether Taiwan lost US President Donald Trump, but whether we, the West, would allow Taiwan to be lost and taken by the Chinese communists. As a conservative and someone born under the communist regime, I say we are lost if we allow Taiwan to be lost.
Taiwan is a beacon of freedom, not only in Asia. In this year’s Index of Economic Freedom, published by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, Taiwan ranked fourth globally, while the US ranked 16. While rooted in Chinese culture, Taiwan has incorporated Western values into its society, particularly in areas such as democracy, individual liberties and social progress. In other words, Taiwan is us. If Taiwan falls, we fall.
Then-Polish president Lech Kaczynski, in his speech during Russian aggression against Georgia in 2008, stated that: “today Georgia, tomorrow Ukraine, the day after tomorrow the Baltic states, and maybe later it will be time for my country, Poland.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin is already invading Ukraine. The same applies to China. If the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) takes Taiwan, the entire security balance in Asia would be threatened, endangering other allies like Japan, the Philippines and Australia. In one of her speeches in 2023, Vice President Hsiao Bi-Khim (蕭美琴) said that “Ukraine’s survival is Taiwan’s survival. Ukraine’s success is Taiwan’s success.”
Taiwanese understand that simple truth about authoritarian rulers. Each victory prompts Putin or Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to reach for more. The free West cannot allow them to do so.
There was nothing unfortunate about Taiwan’s response to COVID-19. On the contrary, Taiwan was the first to warn the world about the dangerous disease spreading in China, but Beijing and the WHO controlled by the CCP suppressed that voice.
What the pandemic proved about Taiwan is that silencing the nation’s voice and not allowing it to be a member of the international community makes the disaster worse. It was not just about the masks; it was about whether we had full access to the information so that we, in the West, could defend ourselves properly. By allowing Taiwan to be silenced and alienated, we did not have access. The rest was a tragedy.
Taiwanese politicians and diplomats have demonstrated their ability to work with Democrats and Republicans. President William Lai (賴清德) warmly welcomed not only the head of the National Endowment for Democracy, Damon Wilson, but also Edwin Feulner, the founder of the Heritage Foundation. Hsiao, then-representative to the US, spoke with members of Congress from both parties. It is not a weakness that she, a daughter of a Taiwanese pastor, values human rights.
In 2014, during the Sunflower movement in Taiwan, the KMT government, through its representative office in Poland, attempted to retract my report on protesters’ occupation of the Executive Yuan. It was Hsiao, then a legislator, who demanded that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs clarify the attack on press freedom. Conservative values, which I hold dear, include a strong emphasis on free speech. I witnessed Hsiao defending that vital aspect of a free society. I believe that her willingness to engage with different circles, including think tanks and politicians, and to respond when our rights are violated, is a trait that would never alienate a Taiwanese politician in the eyes of the US president, regardless of whether they are Republican or Democrat.
Yes, Taiwan must spend more than 3 percent of GDP on defense, and that is essential. Yes, the current government could improve its communication with Trump’s administration. Achieving a 20 percent export rate for most Taiwanese goods to the US is not a success for Lai’s administration. However, the fact that Taiwanese chipmaking giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co is exempt from the US president’s 100 percent tariff on semiconductor chips demonstrates Taiwan’s significance to the US economy’s success.
Conservatives should remember the words of former Polish foreign minister Anna Fotyga: “Taiwan is our trusted and like-minded partner. We share common values and face similar challenges.”
Therefore, instead of threatening that Taiwan lost Trump, we should work with Taiwanese patriots, no matter their political alignments, to prevent the loss of Taiwan.
Hanna Shen is a Polish journalist based in Taiwan.
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