TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s global contributions are an asset for the US, Representative to the US Alexander Yui (俞大㵢) said in an interview with Foreign Policy on Friday.

“We’re not a freeloader,” Yui said. “We’re not here to take advantage of what you have, but we are actually willing to join and contribute.”

He pointed to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s additional US$100 billion (NT$3.02 trillion) investment in the US during President Donald Trump’s second term, bringing its total US investment to US$165 billion.

“We’re already making 90% — almost all of it — in Taiwan,” Yui said. He stressed the need for chip manufacturing growth to remain within a global democratic supply chain. If a Taiwan Strait conflict broke out, Americans would be more concerned that US jobs would be at stake if TSMC fell into China’s hands, the representative added.

A Chinese invasion would also halt global trade, Yui said. “Over half of world trade passes through the Taiwan Strait, not to mention the manufacturing of Taiwan’s semiconductors,” he warned. All ports would be closed, including those in China, Japan, and South Korea.

Yui said President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) has pledged to boost Taiwan’s defense budget to at least 3% of GDP by next year. “If we count defense expenditure in terms of NATO standards, we’ll have passed 5% easily next year,” Yui said, referring to the NATO standard that 3.5% goes to defense and 1.5% is for defense-related infrastructure.

The representative said “US–Taiwan bilateral ongoings are pretty close, very tight, and our communications are ongoing.” Washington’s Taiwan policy remains unchanged, he said.