More than half of Americans believe that the US should defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, a survey commissioned by Newsweek found.
Of the respondents, 31 percent said they would approve and 25 percent said they would strongly approve of the US’ involvement in a cross-strait crisis, Newsweek reported on Friday.
The percentage increased to 56 percent from 47 percent in the middle of August last year, it said, adding that those who were against the US intervening remained the same at 12 percent.
Photo: Reuters
Half of the respondents believed the US was “committed by treaty” to defend Taiwan from a Chinese invasion, Newsweek reported.
The treaty refers to the US’ Taiwan Relations Act.
The survey collected 1,500 valid responses from eligible voters, and was conducted on April 4, the day before President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) met with US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California, Newsweek said.
The poll reflected that Taiwan was more frequently mentioned by political leaders in the US, said political scientist Raymond Kuo (郭泓均), director of RAND Corp’s Hu Taiwan Policy Initiative.
“There’s always been a latent amount of public support for Taiwan,” Newsweek quoted Kuo as saying.
Americans, regardless of political affiliation, are becoming more familiar with and concerned about Taiwan issues, he added.
However, one-third of the respondents said that they did not know whether Taiwan was a military ally of the US, indicating that “the semantic subtleties of US policy towards Taiwan are often lost,” Newsweek said.
Kharis Templeman, a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and program manager of the Hoover Project on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region, was quoted as saying that the US should articulate its position on Taiwan.
Washington “views Taiwan’s international status as undecided, and that a final determination requires a peaceful and voluntary agreement from both sides of the strait,” Templeman said.
Although the US has made no official commitment to defend Taiwan, it has “a long-standing interest in seeing a peaceful resolution of differences across the strait,” he said.
Americans tend to take an unfavorable view of China and distrust Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), a sentiment that has grown in recent years, Newsweek said.
Forty-one percent of the poll’s respondents said China was “the greatest threat” to US interests, followed by Russia with 35 percent, North Korea with 7 percent and Iran with 3 percent, it said.
In other news, experts on Taiwan-US relations said in a new book published on Saturday titled US-Taiwan Relations: Will China’s Challenge Lead to a Crisis? that a cross-strait conflict is not inevitable.
Authors of the book include Ryan Hass, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the German Marshall Fund of the US’ Indo-Pacific program, and former American Institute in Taiwan chairman Richard Bush.
The book discusses the US’ most effective responses to tackle China’s growing military threats against Taiwan, Amazon.com says.
The authors say that the US’ Taiwan policies should focus on understanding the hopes and fears of Taiwanese regarding the threats posed by China.
Maintaining a credible military deterrence is the minimum threshold, they said, adding that the US should fortify Taiwan’s economic dynamism, political autonomy, military preparedness, and dignity and respect on the world stage.
NEXT GENERATION: The four plants in the Central Taiwan Science Park, designated Fab 25, would consist of four 1.4-nanometer wafer manufacturing plants, TSMC said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to begin construction of four new plants later this year, with the aim to officially launch production of 2-nanometer semiconductor wafers by late 2028, Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau director-general Hsu Maw-shin (許茂新) said. Hsu made the announcement at an event on Friday evening celebrating the Central Taiwan Science Park’s 22nd anniversary. The second phase of the park’s expansion would commence with the initial construction of water detention ponds and other structures aimed at soil and water conservation, Hsu said. TSMC has officially leased the land, with the Central Taiwan Science Park having handed over the
AUKUS: The Australian Ambassador to the US said his country is working with the Pentagon and he is confident that submarine issues will be resolved Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd on Friday said that if Taiwan were to fall to China’s occupation, it would unleash China’s military capacities and capabilities more broadly. He also said his country is working with the Pentagon on the US Department of Defense’s review of the AUKUS submarine project and is confident that all issues raised will be resolved. Rudd, who served as Australian prime minister from 2007 to 2010 and for three months in 2013, made the remarks at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado and stressed the longstanding US-Australia alliance and his close relationship with the US Undersecretary
TAIWAN IS TAIWAN: US Representative Tom Tiffany said the amendment was not controversial, as ‘Taiwan is not — nor has it ever been — part of Communist China’ The US House of Representatives on Friday passed an amendment banning the US Department of Defense from creating, buying or displaying any map that shows Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The “Honest Maps” amendment was approved in a voice vote on Friday as part of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for the 2026 fiscal year. The amendment prohibits using any funds from the act to create, buy or display maps that show Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, Penghu, Wuciou (烏坵), Green Island (綠島) or Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) as part of the PRC. The act includes US$831.5 billion in
‘WORLD WAR III’: Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said the aid would inflame tensions, but her amendment was rejected 421 votes against six The US House of Representatives on Friday passed the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for fiscal 2026, which includes US$500 million for Taiwan. The bill, which totals US$831.5 billion in discretionary spending, passed in a 221-209 vote. According to the bill, the funds for Taiwan would be administered by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency and would remain available through Sept. 30, 2027, for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative. The legislation authorizes the US Secretary of Defense, with the agreement of the US Secretary of State, to use the funds to assist Taiwan in procuring defense articles and services, and military training. Republican Representative