By Yimou Lee, Ben Blanchard, Trevor Hunnicutt and Michael Martina
TAIPEI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Unable to just pick up the telephone to U.S. President Donald Trump due to its unusual diplomatic predicament, Taiwan has hit upon a different way to bend his ear – an outreach to the MAGA world that has been backed by the White House.
Since taking office earlier this year, Trump has vacillated on his position towards China-claimed Taiwan as he seeks to strike a trade deal with Beijing. Trump says Chinese President Xi Jinping has told him he won’t invade while the Republican leader is in office, but is also yet to approve any new U.S. arms sales to Taipei.
The fear in Taipei, which has long enjoyed strong unofficial support from Washington, is that a Trump-Xi meeting next week in South Korea could see some sort of “selling out” of Taiwan’s interests by Trump to Xi.
Four senior Taiwan officials described ongoing jitters over those talks and feeding into a “U.S. scepticism” theory on the island that questions Washington’s security support.
In turn, they said, Taipei is reaching out through all possible channels to make clear its determination to defend itself is heard, especially by “Make America Great Again” supporters.
“Everyone in Taiwan is worried and it is the government’s job to make sure that it will not happen,” a senior Taiwan official told Reuters, referring to fears Trump could sacrifice Taiwan’s interests in talks with Xi.
Locked out of the White House given lack of formal diplomatic ties, Lai and his team have been courting conservative U.S. media, including podcaster and radio host Buck Sexton, who interviewed Lai this month.
“We cannot simply call up Trump, so we have had to find other ways to talk to him,” said a second Taiwan official, who like the others spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the matter.
One U.S. administration official told Reuters that members of the Trump administration had encouraged Taiwan to engage with “new media” so it can engage with “real Americans instead of liberal elites”.
The U.S. and Taiwan have a deep partnership on security, technology and manufacturing, and the government is in “close and continuous contact” with Taiwan at many levels, the official added.
COURTING MAGA
Lai told Sexton, from The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show, that Trump should get a Nobel Peace Prize – an award Trump has lobbied for – if he can convince China to abandon the use of force over Taiwan.
Sexton, whose show airs on hundreds of U.S. radio stations, did a separate segment lauding the island.
“Highly recommend any Americans visit. They’re big fans of USA here,” Sexton, who has described U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as “our friend”, wrote from Taipei on X, where the post on the interview itself got more than 150,000 views.
A third Taiwanese official told Reuters the interview was “very positive” for Taiwan.
In June, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim, a fluent English speaker and formerly Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the United States, gave an interview to the Shawn Ryan Show, while in May, then Presidential Office spokesperson Lii Wen wrote an op-ed in the conservative Washington Times.
Taiwan’s presidential office told Reuters that communication with the United States was “smooth” and that Taiwan will continue to seek bipartisan and consistent U.S. support.
“As for building broad, cross-party pro-Taiwan networks among our international friends and allies, including the United States, this has always been an important task of the governing team,” it said.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson said the administration has been very clear that the “enduring U.S. commitment to Taiwan continues, as it has for over four decades”.
KEY ALLIES GONE
Still, Taiwan has lost some key allies in the U.S. national security system, including former Trump adviser John Bolton, charged this month with sharing classified information, charges he disputes. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, however, remains a strong supporter of Taipei.
In an effort to keep the Trump administration onside, Taiwan has been keen to underscore its commitment to spending more on defence.
“Ensuring peace through strength and boosting security through cooperation is our goal,” Lai this month told visiting foreign guests, including Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, who were in Taipei for a security forum.
Schlapp himself told the forum, organised by a Taiwan military-funded think-tank, that Taiwan and the U.S. had a security partnership “that should not be diminished: that President Trump understands – he’s an ally in that fight”.
The State Department spokesperson said the U.S. strongly supports Taiwan’s own efforts to bolster defence and deterrence through reforms and a commitment to increasing defence spending.
The administration has continued to give succour to Taiwan in other ways.
That includes allowing Taiwan’s foreign minister to visit New York last month while the U.N. General Assembly was taking place, and condemning China for “mischaracterising” World War Two-era documents to put pressure on, and isolate, Taiwan.
“The United States cannot abandon Taiwan. America’s greatness stems from its vital strategic importance, which is intrinsically linked to Taiwan,” the first Taiwan official said.
(Reporting by Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard in Taipei, and Trevor Hunnicutt and Michael Martina in Washington; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
Comments