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• Task force on Taiwan-US ties needed, legislator says

  BUILDING BRIDGES: Values or democracy diplomacy policies would no longer be enough and Taiwan must show its indispensability to the US, Chiu Chih-wei said

  • By Chen Cheng-yu, Liu Wan-lin and Esme Yeh / Staff reporters, with staff writer
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  A task force should be established in line with the three presidential committees formed last year to manage the Taiwan-US relationship, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) said yesterday.

  Although concerns have been raised over Taiwan-US ties given conflicting political causes, Washington does not seem to be changing its stance on China, he said.

  However, the government should get rid of old mindsets, as policies such as “values diplomacy” or “democracy diplomacy” would no longer be enough to sustain ties with a White House led by US President Donald Trump, Chiu said, adding that Taiwan must demonstrate its indispensability to the US.

  

  Legislator Chiu Chih-wei arrives at a meeting of the Democratic Progressive Party Central Committee in Taipei on Jan. 8.

  Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times

  The New York Times on Thursday cited US government insiders as saying that Taiwanese officials’ efforts to build bridges into Trump’s inner circle during trips to Washington have yielded little so far.

  Chiu said the administration should set up a task force dedicated to communications with Washington, such as the “Mingteh Project,” or “Ming-teh-Gruppe,” though which Germany sent off-duty military officers to advise Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) in the 1960s.

  Regular, normalized communications between the two governments must be established via a task force to build stable relations and promptly solve issues, he said.

  The task force should include officials from the ministries of national security, national defense and finance, and diplomatic agencies, to promote prompt communication with the Trump administration, Chiu added.

  While heads of state from major Asian countries, such as Japan and India, have visited the US since Trump returned to office, Taiwan’s president and vice president might not follow suit due to the nation’s tricky diplomatic situation, he said.

  However, a special presidential envoy should be sent to visit the US as soon as possible, Chiu said, adding that someone with an industrial background and who is familiar with US politics would be the best choice.

  Regular meetings between the government, industry and academia, and national affairs conferences on trade and economics should also be held to discuss difficult issues in the Taiwan-US relationship, as well the impact of tariff policies and industrial development on the semiconductor sector, he said.

  In other news, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) said opposition parties would support the procurement of necessary arms, but special budgets would not be allocated without considering the national fiscal situation.

  Lee made the comment in response to President William Lai’s (賴清德) call to raise defense spending to at least 3 percent of GDP.

  Given that Trump during his campaign said he expected Taiwan to have a national defense budget of as high as 10 percent of GDP, Lai’s 3 percent proposal might be far off Trump’s goal, she said.

  The government should also proactively ask the US government to complete delayed deliveries of anti-tank missiles, glide bombs and F-16 aircraft, Lee added.

  KMT Legislator Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄) said that a special budget of NT$160 billion (US$4.88 billion) must be drawn up this year to meet Lai’s goal.

  Lai might get that budget from the NT$528.3 billion tax surplus, but people’s livelihoods should come before arms procurements, she added.

  Meanwhile, Taiwan People’s Party caucus director Vicky Chen (陳智菡) said her party supports a balanced split of the military budget between personnel expenses, operational costs and military investments, with the aim of building modernized armed forces and achieving autonomous national defense.

  Additional reporting by Su Yung-yao
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