TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan needs to cast a wider net when it comes to telling its story to the outside world and move past the traditional narratives of being just a semiconductor hub or a democracy worth defending, according to former US Deputy National Security Advisor to the Vice President Steve Yates.
Yates, who is currently a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and host of “Nation States with Yates,” sat down with Taiwan News for a wide-ranging interview that covered Taiwan-US relations, the Trump-Xi summit, arms sales, and KMT Chair Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) upcoming US visit.
A broader Taiwan story
Taiwan has made massive economic contributions to the US, China, and global supply chains, which should be highlighted in international engagement efforts, Yates said. Amid the global AI buildout, Taiwan’s stock exchange has become the world’s fifth-largest equity market, surpassing India, the UK, and many other OECD countries, a fact underappreciated in American leadership circles, Yates noted.
He suggested that Taipei use data to tell a broader story, showing the country is a key contributor to US jobs, technology, and supply chain diversification through Taiwanese investment and trade, not just a chip hub or democracy to defend. Taiwan needs to shift messaging away from emotional appeals to a value-for-value proposition centered on mutual benefit and shared strategic interests.
The nation also needs to better highlight its role in the first island chain and bolster alliances with Japan and the Philippines to reinforce its strategic importance. He suggested that Taiwan promote cooperation on energy, space, manufacturing, and supply chain resilience aligned with Washington and allied priorities. This approach can secure more durable US support regardless of changing administrations or political winds.
Another fact the world needs to know is that not only is Taipei not picking a fight with Beijing, but Taiwan also invested a huge amount into China’s development (US$210 billion, or NT$6.6 trillion, between 1991 and 2024), Yates noted. However, this did not bring security or stability, and that is because China, especially under the leadership of Xi Jinping, has made political warfare against Taiwan a top priority and economics a second priority, he added. Yates suggested countries like Japan, the US, and elsewhere that are at the front end of this relationship with China study Taiwan as an example of the risks of dealing with China.
Trump-Xi summit
When asked about his analysis of the Trump-Xi summit, Yates said that for decades, every one of these presidential interactions with Beijing is scrutinized as to where a comma is placed, what particular word was used because, “we have allowed ourselves to be prisoners of a non-transparent regime.”
He added, “And most of US interactions with China and Taiwan being one layer removed from it, are through this sort of hall of mirrors where we’re left to try and draw conclusions from a few images and a few words. That’s not normal in diplomacy, it’s not normal international relations.”
Yates said he felt the summit was a “maintenance visit, not a breakthrough visit.” Concerning Taiwan during the visit, Yates said the bar did not really move.
“Secretary Rubio gave a very clear and understandable explanation that the Chinese side expressed their view, which is well known, and the US side did not change its policy.”
He said what changed the way the summit was perceived in Taiwan and elsewhere is what Trump said when he got on TV interviews after meeting with Xi. Two questions emerged: How is the US talking with Beijing about arms sales to Taiwan? The other, will Trump talk to President Lai Ching-te (賴清德)?
“These were bolts out of the blue to people who specialize in US-Taiwan relations. They are not concepts that have no precedent,” Yates said.
He noted that while there is no precedent for sitting US presidents to talk to the Taiwan president, there are forms of communication that come close to that.
“And every president to a degree has talked to Beijing about arms sales to Taiwan just because like the warning that was made public this time and almost every time about the US shouldn’t play with fire, there have also been American presidents saying we will do things to promote the self-defense of Taiwan or we will make these decisions based on our insistence that the status quo be maintained and any differences be resolved peacefully.”
“This stuff has happened from the Nixon administration forward. And that’s despite the Six Assurances. And I guess that is the third part that I think legitimately upset people who are specialists,” Yates added.
Taiwan arms sales
When asked if Taiwan should be worried about Trump’s “negotiating chip” comment in reference to future US arms sales, Yates pointed out that going on six years of Trump at the helm, he has approved an aggregate value of US$29.3 billion, greater than the two Obama terms at US$14 billion and one Biden term at US$8.4 billion.
“And so if you take that seriously, then it would be a pretty significant change and uncharacteristic to imagine if he was willing to do that while negotiating the phase one trade agreement in the first term and while trying to get this supposed strategic stability negotiation with China, then this is a matter of timing,” Yates said.
“The added wrinkle to that was the Acting Secretary of the Navy testifying before the US Senate, saying there is a pause. Now, he did not say that there was a pause because there was a concern about strategic stability. He said there was a pause, supposedly based on concerns about operational demands if the conflict with Iran needed to go on for much longer.”
Yates added that once these issues are resolved, his guess was that the sales may be approved before Xi’s September visit to the US.
KMT chair’s US trip
Regarding KMT Chair Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) upcoming two-week US visit, Yates said her trip will be closely watched for signals on who the KMT wants to strategically align with as a priority, China or the US. Yates said Cheng is likely to face skepticism from Washington, especially due to the KMT’s repeated blocking of Lai’s special defense budget and eventual paring down of defense spending, particularly with respect to indigenous defense capabilities.
Yates said it is important for US allies to show that they are taking their own defense seriously, so it is less of a burden on American supply chains. “And in the new way of warfare from Ukraine to Iran going forward, adapting private sector technology to indigenous development of defenses that are meant to block rather than to invade and secure, those are cheaper, the supply chains shorter, and those are things that Taiwan should be maximizing.”
“And so a chairwoman who went to visit with Xi Jinping, who engaged in paring back a special budget that the US across party lines and even the non-partisan parts of our government communicated by way of AIT, made clear that the whole budget mattered to America’s strategic calculations,” will need to reassure people that she is listening, not just telling a story when she goes to Washington, Yates said.
