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.” Advertisement
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 th …
