Taiwanese officials are courting podcasters and influencers aligned with US President Donald Trump as they grow more worried the US leader could undermine Taiwanese interests in talks with China, people familiar with the matter said.
Trump has said Taiwan would likely be on the agenda when he is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) next week in a bid to resolve persistent trade tensions.
China has asked the White House to officially declare it “opposes” Taiwanese independence, Bloomberg reported last month, a concession that would mark a major diplomatic win for Beijing.
Photo: Carlos Garcia Rawlins, Reuters
President William Lai (賴清德) and his top officials have given a blitz of interviews to conservative US figures in the past few months, using those platforms to promote Taiwan’s security issues to so-called MAGA, or “Make America Great Again,” audiences. During such appearances, they have touted the common democratic values underpinning ties with the US, and encouraged deeper trade and investment links.
The strategy aims to elevate Taiwan on Trump’s agenda, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. Unlike other leaders, Lai is restricted from one-to-one contact with the US president. Even so, the outreach has surprised some officials in Taipei, with one saying it reflects urgency on Lai’s part to reach out to the Republican leader.
“Lai’s full-court press across conservative US media reflects Taipei’s rising anxiety over President Trump’s intentions,” Bloomberg Economics senior geoeconomics analyst for the Asia-Pacific Adam Farrar said.
“Even TSMC’s [Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co] multibillion-dollar US investments haven’t clearly strengthened Taiwan’s standing in Washington,” he added, referring to the chip giant’s latest US$100 billion pledge.
In response to questions, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hsiao Kuang-wei (蕭光偉) said Taiwan’s ties with the US were built on a “foundation of bipartisan support.”
“Taiwan has consistently maintained broad engagement with both major US parties and actively cultivated friendly ties across various sectors,” he added.
The US has encouraged Taiwanese officials to engage with new media outlets so they can converse with real Americans instead of liberal elites, a Trump administration official said in a statement.
This is not an indication of worries about the administration’s policies, the person said, adding that Taiwan and the US are deeply partnered in security, technology, manufacturing and education.
Lai and his deputy have featured on two podcasts with conservative US hosts in the past few months, including one where Lai made an appeal to Trump that standing by Taiwan would help him win a Nobel Peace Prize.
“If Taiwan is annexed, China will become even more powerful in competing with the US,” Lai told “The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show” podcast earlier this month. “This will also impact America’s own national interests.”
Sexton said he had spent about a week in Taiwan around recording the program and dedicated air time to praising Taiwan’s safety record, contrasting its low crime rate to US cities like Chicago. Days later, the podcast hosted Eric Trump, the president’s son, although they did not discuss China or Taiwan.
Representative to the US Alexander Yui (俞大?) has led the charge from Washington.
Appearing on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, Yui told Trump’s former White House chief strategist the “diplomatic trenches are being fought very hard.”
He has followed that up with turns on Fox News and by dining with former Navy SEAL Shawn Ryan, whose interview with Trump last year racked up about 4.6 million views.
While the US remains Taiwan’s biggest military backer, there have been signs Trump’s support could be wavering, as China hawks who once restrained his transactional foreign policy increasingly take a back seat.
In July, Lai called off an overseas trip after Washington denied his request to transit in New York. Weeks later, Trump halted a military aid package for Taiwan worth more than US$400 million. Around the same time, Beijing stepped up pressure on the US to officially say it opposes Taiwan independence, which would upend decades of strategic ambiguity.
The US remains committed to its “one China” policy, and to preserving peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, a US Department of State spokesperson said in a statement.
China rejects any official engagement between the US and Taiwan, and has reacted strongly in recent years to any interactions that test those boundaries. In 2022, it responded to then-US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei by firing missiles over the main island and encircling it with unprecedented military drills.
Although Trump upended decades of delicate diplomacy when he had a phone call with then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) after winning the 2016 election, since then he has not spoken with a leader from the democatic nation.
Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party has little in common with Trump’s MAGA agenda, championing left-leaning social values that helped Taiwan become the first Asian democracy to legalize same-sex marriage. That has led to some awkward exchanges.
Earlier this month, Matt Schlapp, who chairs the Conservative Political Action Conference, was invited to deliver a keynote speech at the Taipei Security Dialogue, which is organized by a research group affiliated with the Ministry of National Defense.
Schlapp spent nearly seven minutes attacking wokeness and undocumented immigrants in the US during his half-hour address, shocking some delegates who expressed concern he was treating the event like a MAGA rally.
On the sidelines of that event, Schlapp told Bloomberg News that before this year Taipei had never reached out to his organization.
Taiwan is now trying to balance its identity as a progressive democracy with the need to strengthen connections with Trump, said William Yang (楊?暐), senior analyst for Northeast Asia at the International Crisis Group.
While that might trigger criticism at home, he added, “it reflects the Taiwan government’s pragmatism in managing relations with the US at a time of growing uncertainty.”
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