Taipei, Taiwan – Taiwan has faith in the support of the United States, a top Taiwanese official has said, despite widespread concern on the island that US President Donald Trump could use the East Asian democracy as a bargaining chip in its dealings with China.
“Taiwan and the US have a very strong and solid relationship, and Taiwan has cross-party support from the US Congress,” Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said in an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera.
Unlike the US and China, “the US and Taiwan have unprecedentedly close relations,” said Chiu, whose cabinet-level portfolio covers Taiwan’s relations with mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.
Still, Chiu said it was still too early to fully assess the impact of the second Trump administration.
“The Taiwan government will continue to observe the Trump administration since it has been less than three months,” he said through an interpreter.
“Taiwan’s government has a very consistent position of protecting our sovereignty, our freedom and democracy.”
Trump made headlines in Taiwan in 2016 when he accepted a congratulatory phone call from then-Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, overturning a longstanding convention that US and Taiwanese presidents do not communicate directly.
Ties between the US and Taiwan continued to deepen throughout Trump’s first term and under former US President Joe Biden, with numerous delegations of Democratic and Republican lawmakers visiting the island in recent years.
Since returning to the White House, however, Trump has a launched a series of broadsides at the island, although US Secretary of State Marco Rubio remains a firm Taiwan supporter.
The US president has varyingly accused Taiwan of stealing the US chip industry, argued that Taipei should pay for its own defence, and threatened top Taiwanese chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) with a “100 percent tax” if it does not expand US-based manufacturing.
Trump also hit Taiwan with a 32 percent “reciprocal” tariff – which has been paused until July – and expanded existing steel and aluminium tariffs on its exports, among other initiatives.
Like most countries, the US does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, which China considers part of its territory.
But Washington is committed to supporting the island’s defence under a 1979 law, though the legislation does not specify an obligation to directly intervene in a conflict.
While Taipei is taking a wait-and-see approach, Trump’s “America First” rhetoric and politics have raised concern among many Taiwanese that he could abandon Taiwan to win concessions in trade talks with China.
In a survey published by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation in March, just 39.2 percent of respondents said they believe the US would send troops to defend Taiwan, down from an all-time high of 65 percent in 2021.
Despite these fears, Chiu