US envoy says Taiwan’s defence reforms will help stabilise relations with China

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Washington’s new quasi-ambassador to Taiwan has praised Taipei’s efforts to strengthen its defences, in a statement of reassurance as the prospect of another Donald Trump presidency raises concerns over the US’s commitment to its allies and partners.

“Coming back to Taiwan after three years . . . I am actually much more confident in the effectiveness of both Taiwan and its defence reforms . . . to strengthen cross-strait stability as well as the broader situation of security in the Indo-Pacific,” Raymond Greene, director of the American Institute in Taiwan, told reporters on Wednesday.

The AIT has performed the functions of a US embassy in Taiwan since Washington cut diplomatic relations with Taipei in 1979 to be able to establish official ties with Beijing, which claims the island as its territory and has threatened to annex it by force if it resists indefinitely.

Greene’s message comes as Trump’s candidacy in the November election has raised concerns in Taiwan — as elsewhere in Asia and Europe — that the former president, if re-elected, could severely disrupt ties with allies and partners and undermine their security.

In July, Trump suggested that Taiwan “should pay” the US for its defence commitments and repeated an earlier allegation that the country, now the world’s largest manufacturer by far of the most advanced semiconductors, had stolen this business from the US.

Faced with growing aggression from China, Taiwan has steeply increased defence spending, reinstated one-year conscription for men and started making its military training more realistic. But US government officials and analysts have repeatedly criticised its efforts in the past as falling short.

At his first press conference since arriving in Taipei two months ago, Greene also said the US had made progress in accelerating weapons deliveries to Taiwan over the past six months.

Under the Taiwan Relations Act, Washington considers any effort to determine Taiwan’s future by non-peaceful means as an issue of grave concern to the US and commits to providing Taiwan with defensive weapons and to maintaining US capacity to resist coercion that would jeopardise Taiwan’s security.

But the war in Ukraine and other conflicts have put severe capacity strains on the US defence industry and created a huge backlog of munitions shipments to Taipei.

The US has a prioritisation process for weapons supplies to allies and partners and Taiwan is “at the very top of our priority list”, Greene said. Asked whether Washington might co-produce weapons with Taipei, he said the US was working with several partners on potential joint production of military supplies, adding: “I’ll not rule out Taiwan being one of those partners in the future.”

Greene said his top priority was helping Taiwan become more resilient not only against natural disasters but also against man-made threats — in line with the agenda of Taiwan’s new President Lai Ching-te.

In particular, the US will seek to assist Taiwan in strengthening its energy sector and making its grid less vulnerable, an issue the next round of bilateral trade talks this autumn will focus on, he added.

A committee set up by Lai to work on all-of-society defence and resilience will outline the government’s plans at its first meeting on September 21.