In a Bloomberg opinion piece, Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te says closer relations with the U.S. are a critical pillar of regional security. Political scientist Lev Nachman explains how Taiwan is navigating Trump's tariffs.
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00:00So Lai has laid out his roadmap for closer U.S. trade ties. What do you think of his plan?
00:07Well, the key features in his article, he talks about wanting to move forward with a bilateral trade agreement with the United States, creating more business ties with the United States, and of course, purchasing more military equipment from the United States.
00:22This isn't anything new. In fact, this has sort of been the hope of Taiwan for quite some time.
00:26I think Lai is hoping to use this opportunity as a way to sort of showcase that this is what Taiwan has actively wanted for quite some time, as a way to both sort of highlight the need for closer U.S.-Taiwan economic ties, while also trying his best to appease Trump at a time where Trump is strongly looking for appeasement from global leaders.
00:46And this, of course, comes as the world scrambles to deal with Trump and his tariffs.
00:52How does Taiwan's approach to those tariffs differ from the rest of the region and the rest of the world?
01:00Taiwan took the approach of not retaliating, which was a very, I think, calculated approach by Taiwan.
01:08Of course, Taiwan does not want to upset the United States.
01:11It's Taiwan's most important trading partner.
01:14And so it puts Taiwan in a tough position where really there's no room to retaliate, even if there was large desires to do so.
01:21Now, that differs, of course, from some other places around the world that did retaliate.
01:25But as we've seen in just the last 24 hours, Trump is now saying that there's going to be a 90-day pause on countries who did not retaliate.
01:32So I think that Taiwan did the right move, but it was also perhaps maybe the only move Taiwan actually had.
01:40Lai links the need for greater trade ties with the need for security in the region, Taiwan obviously facing up to China and its aggression.
01:49How are those two issues linked for Taiwan and why would it be in Lai's interest to persuade Trump that you can't have one without the other?
01:58The more economic ties Taiwan has with the United States, and more broadly, the more economic ties Taiwan has with countries around the world, the more invested countries will be in Taiwan maintaining its de facto sovereignty and maintaining Taiwan's ability to be a part of the global economy.
02:16What it would mean is that the more countries that are hurt by some sort of change in Taiwan's status quo means the more invested they are in Taiwan's safety.
02:25So economics and national security go hand in hand in Taiwan.
02:30You can't really talk about one without the other.