U.S. Congressional Delegation Reaffirms Support for Taiwan’s Defense as President Lai Calls for “Non-Red Supply Chains”
On April 18, President Lai Ching-te said that Taiwan looks forward to strengthening cooperation with the United States in areas such as trade and technology during a meeting with a visiting U.S. Congressional delegation led by Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE).
Ricketts, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy, is leading a bipartisan delegation to Taiwan from April 16 to 19. Other members of the delegation include Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and Ted Budd (R-NC).
Speaking at the Presidential Office in Taipei, President Lai told the delegation that enhanced collaboration would enable both countries to leverage their strengths and jointly promote prosperity and development.
He also called for a “secure and sustainable economic and trade partnership” between the two sides and urged joint efforts to build “non-red supply chains” — manufacturing networks independent of Chinese involvement — to address geopolitical challenges.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Congressional delegation focused on security issues across the Taiwan Strait amid growing military intimidation from China.
“In the face of rising aggression from Communist China, we will help Taiwan with its self-defense,” Senator Ricketts said, adding, “There is broad consensus in the U.S. Congress to support Taiwan’s self-defense.”
“The United States is committed to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific. We want to see peace across the Taiwan Strait. We oppose any unilateral change in the status of Taiwan,” Ricketts emphasized.
He added that the U.S. expects any differences between Taiwan and China “to be resolved peacefully without coercion or the threat of force.”
Senator Coons noted that 46 years ago, the U.S. Senate passed the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) with strong bipartisan support. At its core, he said, the TRA affirms the U.S. commitment to stand with Taiwan whenever needed.
The United States will be “present, will be engaged . . . in ensuring that any dispute, any challenges across the [Taiwan] Strait will be resolved peacefully and that Taiwan will have the resources it needs for its self-defense,” Coons added.
Sources:
[1] Focus Taiwan
[2] Reuters
[3] CNA (in Hanji)
Taiwan to Hold Further Tariff Talks with U.S. Soon, Step Up Crackdown on Country-of-Origin Fraud
Taiwan and the United States are expected to hold a second round of tariff negotiations in the near future, following their initial discussion on April 11, an Executive Yuan official said on April 16.
A team of Taiwanese officials appointed by Taiwan President Lai Ching-te participated in a virtual meeting with their U.S. counterparts on April 11 and engaged in what the official described as a “constructive dialogue” on a broad range of economic and trade issues.
Topics discussed included reciprocal tariffs, non-tariff barriers, and export controls, the official added. Both sides expressed interest in holding a follow-up meeting soon, although no further details were provided.
Meanwhile, on April 16, Taiwan’s Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo said that the Taiwanese government is placing greater emphasis on combating country-of-origin fraud, which remains a key issue in tariff negotiations with the United States.
To prevent Chinese-made products from being falsely labeled as originating in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs will strictly enforce penalties on companies that violate country-of-origin regulations, Kuo said, adding that serious violations could result in the suspension of a company’s operations.
We will monitor import volumes, impose fines ranging from NT$60,000 to NT$3 million (US$1,845 to US$92,251) per violation, and revoke import-export licenses of offenders in the most serious cases, he said.
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun added that the Ministry of Finance has established a task force to strengthen inspections of illegal transshipments at customs, aiming to prevent the use of Taiwan as a base for re-exports to the United States to evade higher tariffs.
Since 2020, there have been nearly 800 cases of origin fraud, with total fines amounting to NT$29.58 million, according to Ministry of Finance data.
Sources:
[1] Focus Taiwan
[2] Focus Taiwan
[3] Taipei Times
Taiwan’s Defense Minister: Taiwan Is a “Core Interest” of the U.S.
On April 15, Taiwan’s Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo stated that a recent warning from the top U.S. commander in the Indo-Pacific region about escalating Chinese military aggression toward Taiwan underscores that peace in the Indo-Pacific is a “core interest” of the United States, and that maintaining the status quo in the Taiwan Strait is widely recognized as a global consensus.
Speaking at a U.S. Senate hearing on April 10, Admiral Samuel Paparo, Commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, said that China’s aggressive military actions toward Taiwan have increased by 300 percent over the past year and pose a serious threat to the security of the United States and its allies.
Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Paparo warned that a closure of the Taiwan Strait — one of the world’s most critical maritime trade routes — could lead to consequences more severe than those of the Great Depression of the 1930s.
A war in the Indo-Pacific, he cautioned, could result in a 25 percent drop in Asia’s GDP, a 10 to 12 percent decline in U.S. GDP, a 7 to 10 percent spike in unemployment above normal levels, and 500,000 excess deaths of despair.
Even with a successful U.S. intervention, Paparo added, the impact would still be severe, resulting in a lot of human misery.
Minister Koo said Paparo’s remarks underscore that global stability and prosperity depend on peace in the Indo-Pacific. He added that maintaining the status quo in the Taiwan Strait is widely regarded as an international consensus and requires active, sustained efforts to preserve.
Koo also cited a recently leaked internal Pentagon memo as further evidence of the U.S. commitment to deterring a Chinese annexation of Taiwan.
The memo reportedly called for prioritizing deterrence against Chinese aggression toward Taiwan while scaling back U.S. support for Ukraine amid Russia’s ongoing invasion.
According to reports, the memo identified China as the Pentagon’s “sole pacing threat” and stated that denying a “Chinese fait accompli seizure of Taiwan,” while simultaneously defending the U.S. homeland, is the Department of Defense’s “sole pacing scenario.”
