Taiwan’s rep in US on Ukraine lessons – and deterring China

Monitor Breakfast

As Russia’s war on Ukraine drags on, and the United States continues to spend billions of dollars in aid, a larger geopolitical question looms: What about Taiwan? It faces its own menacing neighbor, China, which considers the democratically ruled island part of its territory.

The question continues: In the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, will Americans be as devoted to the island’s defense as they are to helping Ukraine?

In a word, yes, says Bi-khim Hsiao, Taiwan’s representative to the U.S. In fact, she suggests, the Ukraine war is actually helping to heighten global awareness of Taiwan’s potential peril amid China’s “growing aggressiveness.”

“The Ukraine war has actually generated a lot more attention and interest in understanding Taiwan’s security situation and understanding Taiwan’s defense needs,” says Ms. Hsiao, speaking at a press breakfast Tuesday hosted by The Christian Science Monitor. “And so there has been an increase in questions, in awareness, in actions, in initiatives to find ways to support Taiwan so that that tragedy will not be repeated in our scenario.”

Ms. Hsiao, who does not do many public appearances, cuts an unusual figure in Washington. She is technically not an ambassador, because the U.S. does not recognize Taiwan as an independent country, following the “one China” policy of 1979. Her title is “Taipei economic and cultural representative.” But she and her office have close ties with the U.S. government.

The representative’s relationship with the U.S. itself is also deep. She was born to an American mother and Taiwanese father, and when she was a teenager, the family moved from Taiwan to Montclair, New Jersey, where she went to high school. She then attended Oberlin College in Ohio and graduate school at Columbia University in New York.

Ms. Hsiao says the people of Ukraine can be a source of inspiration for the 23 million people of Taiwan.

“We are looking at how the Ukrainians have fortified in the process of resisting the invasion,” she says. “The public will to defend [also sends] a strong message of deterrence.”

But don’t draw too close a comparison, Ms. Hsiao says. Taiwan is not Ukraine.

“We have different histories and a different strategic position in our region, but also in relationship to global security as well,” Ms. Hsiao says. “So I’m not drawing the exact parallels, and ultimately the course that we intend to move is of a relationship of continuing stability in the region. We are doing everything we can to deter and to prevent any possibility of conflict.”

She cites drones as one example of the modern technologies that Taiwan can deploy in its own defense. And, she makes clear, Taiwan is preparing to defend itself, and not just rely on other democracies to save the day.

She ticks off a list of measures Taiwan has taken: increasing its defense budget, building a domestic defense industry, reforming and enhancing its military reserves, and extending the conscript military training program from four months to a full year by next year. In addition, last year Taiwan established the All-Out Defense and Mobilization Agency, which takes “a whole-of-society approach to our defense preparedness,” she says.

Here’s the C-SPAN link to the video of our breakfast session with Ms. Hsiao. Following are more excerpts, lightly edited for clarity.

How does Taiwan strike a balance between strengthening its defenses and potential accusations of provocation?

You know, when you are in a bad neighborhood and you have someone in your neighborhood coming, yelling at us every day saying, “I’m going to eat you up, you are mine, and if you don’t listen, I’m going to destroy you,” I think, you know, it’s hard to say that we are provoking anyone by adding our own defense.

What do you say to the China “hawks” in Congress whose rhetoric can elicit responses from Beijing that may be unhelpful to Taiwan?

Well, across the board, as we engage with both the administration and Congress, I think there is an understanding that the source of threats or instability is generated by the Communist Party of China.

There’s an interest in deterring the potential for threat. I don’t see anyone wanting conflict or advocating the need to provoke a conflict with China. Instead, I see a lot of discussion on the need to strengthen ourselves so that we would be in a position to defend against potential aggression.

Taiwan produces more than 60% of the world’s semiconductors, or chips, and 90% of the most advanced chips. In the U.S., the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 aims to boost the production of semiconductors domestically. What concerns has Taiwan expressed to the U.S. over this new law?

The chip industry is a very important component of Taiwan’s broader economic resilience, and I think Taiwan will continue to be an indispensable and irreplaceable part of global critical supply chains. And Taiwan will remain the most competitive place for making chips in the world, including those advanced chips.

But having said that, I think our government in general supports our industry’s interest in having a global presence as well, not just to production facilities inside Taiwan. And as they consider some additional investments in like-minded democracies, and we want to ensure that those are also successful.

Even before Russia invaded Ukraine, Taiwan was experiencing a multi-billion-dollar backlog in arms deliveries, including F-16 aircraft. Is that affecting Taiwan’s ability to deter an invasion?

The challenges that the United States is experiencing in the defense supply chain have certainly had an impact on Taiwan. We are working actively in partnership with our American counterparts to find ways of addressing that. I'm told that the administration has also formed a “tiger team” to resolve some of these issues down to the factory floor.

There has also been a lot of bipartisan attention from Congress in supporting all the efforts to reform and address some of the glitches in the production and delivery of U.S. systems. And we have seen some good progress, actually, in terms of moving up some of the delivery timelines.