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The last time Foreign Policy<\/em> sat down<\/a> with Alexander Tah-ray Yui, he was just months into his \u00a0new role as the de facto Taiwanese ambassador to Washington\u2014officially known as Taiwan\u2019s representative to the United States\u2014with less than a year left in U.S. President Joe Biden\u2019s term. Biden said on multiple occasions that the U.S. military would defend the island in the event of an attack from China, seemingly straying from a long-standing U.S. policy of \u201cstrategic ambiguity\u201d toward Taiwan (though Biden administration officials repeatedly stressed<\/a> that the policy hadn\u2019t changed). He also signed off<\/a> on more than a dozen weapons sales to Taiwan during his four years in office.<\/p>\n On Friday, Yui sat down again with Foreign Policy<\/em>\u2014in a rather different context. Eight months into President Donald Trump\u2019s second term, the White House\u2019s attitude toward Taiwan has been somewhat more ambivalent<\/a> in both words and actions. Trump denied a request for Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te to transit through New York this year, and the Trump administration canceled a planned meeting in Washington with Taiwan\u2019s defense minister in June.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The last time Foreign Policy<\/em> sat down<\/a> with Alexander Tah-ray Yui, he was just months into his \u00a0new role as the de facto Taiwanese ambassador to Washington\u2014officially known as Taiwan\u2019s representative to the United States\u2014with less than a year left in U.S. President Joe Biden\u2019s term. Biden said on multiple occasions that the U.S. military would defend the island in the event of an attack from China, seemingly straying from a long-standing U.S. policy of \u201cstrategic ambiguity\u201d toward Taiwan (though Biden administration officials repeatedly stressed<\/a> that the policy hadn\u2019t changed). He also signed off<\/a> on more than a dozen weapons sales to Taiwan during his four years in office.<\/p>\n On Friday, Yui sat down again with Foreign Policy<\/em>\u2014in a rather different context. Eight months into President Donald Trump\u2019s second term, the White House\u2019s attitude toward Taiwan has been somewhat more ambivalent<\/a> in both words and actions. Trump denied a request for Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te to transit through New York this year, and the Trump administration canceled a planned meeting in Washington with Taiwan\u2019s defense minister in June.<\/p>\n And on Thursday, the Washington Post<\/em> reported<\/a> that Trump had declined to approve $400 million in military aid to Taiwan in recent months as he seeks a trade deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Yui\u2019s Friday interview took place even as Trump and Xi were engaging in a high-profile phone call to discuss those trade negotiations, which Trump subsequently described<\/a> as \u201cvery productive.\u201d He also committed to visiting China next year.<\/p>\n Yui described it as \u201ca good thing that the two sides are talking,\u201d but he added that \u201cTaiwan puts a very big eye on\u201d these negotiations \u201cto make sure Taiwan\u2019s issues are not for trade or for barter.\u201d<\/p>\n Neither Beijing\u2019s<\/a> nor Washington\u2019s<\/a> immediate readouts on the call mentioned Taiwan, but China has stepped up its pressure on the island in recent years through both diplomatic statements and military provocations. Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun said<\/a> at a security forum in Beijing on Thursday that China\u2019s takeover of Taiwan\u2014a self-governing democracy that Beijing treats as a breakaway province\u2014is \u201can integral part of the post-war international order.\u201d<\/p>\n Yui takes the threat of China seriously but downplayed suggestions that Taiwan would have to face it without U.S. support under Trump. \u201cI can reassure you that U.S.-Taiwan bilateral ongoings are pretty close, very tight, and our communications are ongoing,\u201d he said, adding that the fundamental U.S. policy position on Taiwan hadn\u2019t changed. The meeting between U.S. and Taiwanese defense officials that was canceled, he said, \u201chappened later on in another place.\u201d<\/p>\n I also wanted to know what lessons, if any, the Taiwanese envoy to Washington had derived from Trump\u2019s efforts to mediate the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. \u201cThey\u2019re already at war or in armed conflict\u2014we\u2019re not. So we want to make sure that it stays that way,\u201d Yui said. \u201cWhat I see is the United States is really serious in trying to bring an end to those conflicts. \u2026 There are different approaches in how to do it\u2014and who am I to judge?\u2014but it\u2019s comforting to see that the United States is really working to reach peace.\u201d<\/p>\n A potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, Yui warned, would have far wider global implications. \u201cOver half of world trade passes through the Taiwan Strait, not to mention the manufacturing of Taiwan\u2019s semiconductors,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just us\u2014if there\u2019s a conflict, the Chinese ports will be sealed, ours will be sealed, the Japanese, the Koreans\u2019. World trade will basically be put to a halt.\u201d<\/p>\n Taiwan is also taking steps to mollify Trump and give him the big numbers he likes to tout. Lai\u2019s government has committed to increasing Taiwan\u2019s defense spending to at least 3 percent of its GDP by next year (though Trump<\/a> and other administration officials have demanded<\/a> 10 percent). \u201cIf we count defense expenditure in terms of NATO standards, we\u2019ll have passed 5 percent easily next year,\u201d Yui said, referring to NATO members\u2019 new spending target<\/a>, agreed on in June, that includes 3.5 percent in defense spending and 1.5 percent in defense-related infrastructure.<\/p>\n Part of the problem, Yui said, is how long U.S. weapons deliveries tend to take, which exacerbates increasingly contentious domestic debates in Taiwan on how to spend the money. He cites the example of Taiwan\u2019s 108 new Abrams M1A2T tanks, which have been only partially delivered<\/a> in two batches over the past year despite the purchase being agreed during Trump\u2019s first term in 2019. \u201cWe can spend whatever we need on defense, but the problem is if we don\u2019t get it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re not blaming anyone. It\u2019s just been slow.\u201d<\/p>\n The $400 million in aid Trump reportedly blocked comes from a provision known as the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA), which expedites the transfer of U.S. weapons to foreign partners. \u201cIt\u2019s not about the money itself,\u201d Yui said. \u201cThrough PDA, the United States can access that equipment immediately and make it available to Taiwan fairly quickly.\u201d He also highlighted the White House statement to the Post<\/em> that a decision on that aid package had not been finalized.<\/p>\n The island\u2019s expanded commitments to the United States go beyond defense. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the island\u2019s crown jewel and which produces most of the world\u2019s advanced computing chips, was already a champion of Biden\u2019s CHIPS and Science Act but has pledged an additional $100 billion investment<\/a> in its U.S. manufacturing during Trump\u2019s second term, bringing its total investment to $165 billion.<\/p>\n It\u2019s all part of Taiwan\u2019s messaging to ensure it does not get\u2014in Yui\u2019s words\u2014\u201cthrown under the bus\u201d or used as a bargaining chip in negotiations between Washington and Beijing. The global push for artificial intelligence and the resulting demand for semiconductor chips to power AI applications are many orders above what Taiwan can produce.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re already making 90 percent, almost all of it, in Taiwan, but Taiwan is the size of Maryland,\u201d Yui said. \u201cThere\u2019s a big need for semiconductor manufacturing growth, but let\u2019s make sure that supply chain stays within democracies,\u201d he added. \u201cWe\u2019re better bound together, and if there\u2019s a conflict in Taiwan\u2014hopefully not\u2014I think people in the United States will be more concerned because that will be U.S. jobs at stake if TSMC is taken over by the Chinese.\u201d<\/p>\n That message of Taiwan\u2019s global value and utility is what Yui also plans to take to New York next week during the United Nations General Assembly\u2019s high-level gathering.\u00a0Although Taiwan is not recognized by the United Nations and its diplomats are not allowed into the U.N. headquarters (Beijing was granted the sole Chinese seat in 1971, leading to Taiwan\u2019s expulsion from the body), Yui said he plans to attend meetings and events elsewhere in the city.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll be in New York next week,\u201d he said, joking that his engagements will be akin to standing with a megaphone outside the U.N. asking to be let in and describing it as the island\u2019s \u201cyearly quest\u201d to be recognized globally. It\u2019s the same message he shares with Trump and Washington.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not a freeloader,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re not here to take advantage of what you have, but we are actually willing to join and contribute. So we\u2019re an asset, not a liability.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n