TAIPEI, Taiwan – When Donald Trump lost his re-election in November, there was a place far from his “Make America Great Again” rallies that also felt the loss intensely: Taiwan.
Many Taiwanese preferred Trump because of his government’s tough line against China and support for Taiwan, a self-governing island that is claimed by Beijing and is under increasing Chinese pressure. Many feared that President Joe Biden would forget them when he tried to repair Washington’s relations with Beijing.
But so far, Biden has continued to show strong support for Taiwan, sometimes going beyond what the Trump administration has done.
Taiwan is one of the reasons why tensions between Beijing and Washington remain high, setting the stage for a difficult meeting this week between the two governments – their first meaningful personal conversations since Biden became president.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan will sit down with Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Alaska on Thursday and Friday.
Blinken and Sullivan will be seated in front of a confident-looking Chinese delegation: Beijing suppressed opposition to its government in Hong Kong, delimited territory in the disputed South China Sea and recovered from the coronavirus, which was first reported in Wuhan, China . It has also positioned itself as a benefactor, sending free or cheap home vaccines worldwide.
On the other side of the table is a Biden government that has already classified China as America’s most important challenge. Blinken, who called China “the greatest geopolitical test of the 21st century” for the United States, during a visit to Japan on Tuesday, promised to contain its growing “coercion and aggression” in Asia. On Wednesday, he announced sanctions on 24 more Chinese and Hong Kong officials over Beijing’s crackdown on the territory.
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Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said last week that the Alaska meeting was proposed by the United States and that Beijing hoped the two sides could “focus on cooperation, manage differences and promote development. solid and stable relationship between China and the USA “.
Under Trump, who blamed China for the pandemic, a painful trade war between the two countries has intensified, and Beijing has defined its conditions for improving relations with Washington.
Wang said last month that Beijing wanted Washington to remove tariffs on Chinese products, lift restrictions on Chinese technology companies and stop interfering in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the treatment it gives to Uighur minorities in northwest Xinjiang.
Still, Biden pressed these issues in his first phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping since he became president, suggesting that the two sides are unlikely to find much common ground in Alaska.
“If you look at all the signals that Beijing sent to the Biden government, you are basically telling them ‘the Trump administration has ruined the relationship, it is your responsibility to undo everything that has been done … and then we can start talking,” without acknowledging none of the reasons why President Trump took the steps he did, “said Drew Thompson, a former China Department of Defense official in charge.
“There is no reason for the Biden government to follow this line of logic when China offers absolutely nothing in return,” said Thompson, a visiting researcher at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
The United States said that while it talks about how the two countries can work together, it will also address issues such as a lack of transparency about the Covid-19 outbreak, efforts to push democracy back in Hong Kong, rights abuses and Taiwan.
The Biden government has so far signaled strong support for democratic Taiwan, which has been governed separately from China since 1949. Although the vast majority of the Taiwanese public is against being absorbed by its huge communist neighbor, Beijing’s ultimate goal is to take control of Taiwan – by force, if necessary.
Last year, Beijing increased military pressure on Taiwan, frequently sending fighters to its air defense identification zone and causing the Taiwanese air force to react with difficulty.
Last week, Admiral Philip Davidson, commander of the United States’ Indo-Pacific Command, said China could invade Taiwan in the next six years, comments criticized by Beijing as “exaggerating China’s military threat”.
If China attacks Taiwan, the chances of the United States intervening to defend the island are “very high,” said Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies based in Washington, DC.
“If the United States allowed China to take Taiwan by force, it would lose credibility with its allies and partners in the region and possibly encourage Beijing to use force against other countries to resolve territorial disputes in its favor,” she said.
The Trump administration has taken unprecedented steps to increase U.S. support for Taiwan, including passing laws to help it deal with pressure from China and sending two high-ranking American officials to visit the island in 40 years. It also sold significantly more weapons to Taiwan than previous administrations.
These actions garnered Trump’s support in Taiwan: it was the only place in Europe and Asia Pacific surveyed by YouGov before last year’s presidential election where more people wanted him to beat Biden.
However, under Biden, the United States said its support for Taiwan was “rock solid” and invited the Taiwanese representative in the U.S. to participate in his inauguration – the first time since Washington broke official relations with Taiwan in favor of Beijing in 1979.
This reassured Taipei – although skepticism remains.
Taipei resident Chen Hao, 26, said he was “a little nervous” when Trump lost the presidency. “I didn’t know what Biden would be like because he knew that when he was under Obama, they were both very soft against China.”
“Now I’m not sure … he’s a little bit stronger than I thought, but that’s all.”