American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Managing Director Ingrid Larson, head of the agency’s Washington office, is visiting Taiwan to meet with local officials, the de facto US embassy said yesterday.
Larson is holding meetings from Monday to Friday “as part of the United States’ strong commitment to Taiwan and to advance the growing US-Taiwan partnership,” the AIT said in a news release.
“While in Taiwan, she will discuss continued US-Taiwan collaboration on issues of mutual interest such as regional security, mutually beneficial trade and investment, and people-to-people, educational and cultural ties,” it said.
Photo: the Presidential Office via Reuters
The AIT did not name the officials Larson is expected to meet with while in Taipei.
Senior AIT officials usually meet with the president or vice president, senior diplomats and leaders across the political aisle.
As managing director, Larson is responsible for hosting important visitors from Taiwan, finalizing programs and transactions on behalf of the US government as empowered by the Taiwan Relations Act, and overseeing fiscal and other reporting requirements for AIT, the institute says on its Web site.
Larson joined the AIT in May 2020, after a 22-year career in the US Department of State.
Meanwhile, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said he “disagrees” with former US president and Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump’s claim that Taiwan “stole” the US’ chip industry.
In a recent appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, the former president criticized the US CHIPS and Science Act and threatened to impose tariffs on chips from Taiwan if elected.
“You know, Taiwan, they stole our chip business ... and they want protection,” Trump said in the episode, which was released on Saturday.
During an appearance at the legislature, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) asked Cho if the government agreed with Trump’s comments.
Wang said that Trump had made such accusations about Taiwan “more than once.”
“Of course, I disagree,” Cho said. “Taiwan developed its semiconductor industry on its own and made itself into a world leader.”
Wang said she worried this narrative about Taiwan could become more widespread if Trump were elected, thus harming the efforts of all those involved in Taiwan’s semiconductor sector.
The government would continue to monitor developments across a range of issues, “especially the US elections,” Cho said.
Cho said he was confident that the US is a mature democracy and that Taiwan and the US would continue to deepen its relationship upon its existing foundation.
In an interview with podcaster Tim Dillon published on Saturday, Trump’s running mate, US Senator J.D. Vance, said that supporting Taiwan should be a higher priority than Ukraine considering its importance to the global economy.
“Taiwan makes so much of the computer chips, right? Which is such a driver of all economic growth that if the Chinese took over Taiwan, it would be really bad for us,” Vance said.
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