US President Donald Trump’s confrontational policy toward China in his second term presents more of an opportunity for Taiwan than a threat, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said.
“The main focus of Trump’s second term is countering China,” Lin said during an interview on an online talk show hosted by a local political pundit that aired on Sunday night.
Although countering China does not necessarily mean supporting Taiwan, the Trump administration’s stance gives Taiwan the opportunity to find common interests with the US, Lin said.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
“Taiwan’s foreign policy is not formulated on US interests, but is rather based on Taiwan’s interests,” he said.
The government is finding common ground with Washington and focusing on promoting policies where the countries’ interests are aligned, he said.
During his presidential campaign, Trump made controversial remarks about Taiwan, including accusing the nation of “stealing” the chip industry from the US decades ago, Lin said.
Trump also repeatedly expressed frustration that Taipei does not pay the US to fund its defense, he added.
Taiwan needs to take Trump’s words “seriously, but not literally,” Lin said.
In response to Trump’s remarks, President William Lai (賴清德) last month announced that the government aimed to increase defense spending to 3 percent of GDP this year, the minister said.
Lin said he is optimistic about the Trump administration’s foreign policy, as much of the Taiwan-US cooperation during the administration of former US president Joe Biden began during Trump’s first term from 2016 to 2020, and many senior members of Trump’s national security team are Taiwan friendly.
“Trump 2.0 has so far shown more continuity in its policy than variability,” he said, adding that Trump’s second term is offering Taiwan “more opportunities than threats.”
Meanwhile, asked about the US Department of State’s decision to remove from a bilateral relations fact sheet a line indicating Washington’s long-held stance of not supporting Taiwanese independence, and whether that means stronger support from Washington, Lin said he does not believe Taiwan needs to “overinterpret” the move.
Taiwan needs to be more “practical” instead of overreacting to the wording in the fact sheet, he said.
However, it is a good sign showing the need to move away from the Taiwan-US -China trilateral relationship framework established during the Cold War and view Taiwan-US and US-China relations separately so that Beijing does not have a say in Washington’s interactions with Taipei, he said.
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