Wed, Aug 20, 2025 page3

• Distrust of US might help China, article says

  • By Jonathan Chin / Staff writer
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  Taiwan’s growing distrust of the US in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and semiconductor policies could push the nation into Beijing’s orbit, US analysts said in an article published on Monday by the Washington-based German Marshall Fund.

  Taiwan’s initial loss of confidence in the US spiked after then-US president Joe Biden declined to send troops to defend Ukraine against the Russian invasion, China specialist Bonnie Glaser and coauthor Jennifer Lan, a graduate student at Georgetown University and an intern at the group, wrote in the article.

  Taiwan’s distrust of the US returned due to its 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods — higher than the 15 percent on Japan and South Korea — and concerns that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s construction of fabs in the US could weaken the nation’s strategic relevance, Glaser and Lan said.

  

  Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Washington-based German Marshall Fund’s Indo-Pacific program, attends an event in Taipei on Feb. 18.

  Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times

  Recent surveys revealed that negativity and distrust of the US among Taiwanese has surged, including doubts over the possibility of the US supporting Taiwan’s defense with combat troops against a Chinese invasion, they said.

  A report by the Washington-based Brookings Institution that aggregated polls in Taiwan from February to April showed that 40.5 percent of respondents held a negative view of the US, up from 24.2 percent in July last year, they said.

  The surveys showed a 13.9 percentage point increase in the proportion of respondents who believed the US to be an untrustworthy ally, they said.

  A poll conducted in March by the Taipei-based American Portrait Survey showed that 59.6 percent did not consider the US to be trustworthy, up 10 percentage points from the previous year, they said.

  More than 40 percent of respondents believed that the US is “unlikely” to intervene or “definitely would not intervene” should China invade Taiwan, they said, citing the reports from both organizations.

  “Trump’s reciprocal tariffs against Taiwan are likely a major factor for the hit to the US image,” Glaser and Lan said, citing a Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation poll published in the middle of April.

  The foundation’s poll showed that 81.9 percent believed the tariffs were unreasonable, while 86.4 percent believed they would have a moderate to serious impact on the nation’s economy, they wrote.

  “Trump himself is another driver of Washington’s eroding image,” Glaser and Lan said.

  The Brookings Institution report showed that 60.9 percent disagreed with the statement that “Taiwan is safer with Trump as the US president,” while 57.2 percent agreed that the US is less dependable under Trump, they said.

  “The shift in public opinion ... could set back US interests,” they said. “The rising uneasiness could induce despair about Taiwan’s future, providing [China] with an opportunity to advance its long-term strategy of convincing Taiwan citizens that their best and perhaps only option is unification on Beijing’s terms,” Glaser and Lan said.

  Dismay among Taiwanese could embolden China to undertake riskier actions toward annexing the nation, including challenging Taipei’s jurisdiction over its surrounding waters, effectuating a blockade, or seizing Taiwan’s outlying islands, they said.

  Washington should emphasize the importance of Taiwan to its strategic interests, approve and ensure the timely delivery of key weapon systems, return to fair trade, facilitate transits in the US by President William Lai (賴清德) and continue to send delegations of US lawmakers to Taiwan, they said.
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