Trump remains stubbornly wrong on Taiwan

While America’s Republican Party talks toughness on China and support for Taiwan, its presidential candidate has just described with more clarity than ever his personal inclination to let China conquer Taiwan. Although a reputation for having a “transactional” view of foreign policy precedes him, Trump’s recent comments about Taiwan are jarring.

Current President Joe Biden strained the US policy of “strategic ambiguity” by publicly saying four times that he would send American forces to help defend Taiwan in the event of a PRC attack. Trump has strained that policy in the opposite direction. Despite not saying he wouldn’t send the US military to help Taiwan, Trump told us why he thought US intervention would be a bad idea.

David P. Goldman wrote in Asia Times on July 18 thatTrump simply “spoke common sense.” Hardly.

There are five important things wrong with what Trump said.

First, he said “Taiwan should pay us for defense,” adding that “they’re immensely wealthy.” He compared the US role to that of an “insurance company.”

Trump seems to be misapplying to Taiwan the same criticism that he makes of Japan and South Korea. The USA is bound by treaties to defend the latter two, and Trump has long said they are free-riders that should pay all of the cost of hosting US bases plus an additional premium.

But Taiwan isn’t a free-rider. Taipei pays for the weapons it buys from the USA. Taiwan is not a US treaty ally, does not host US bases and does not even have a firm commitment that US forces would intervene when needed. The notion that Taiwan should pay the United States for a non-commitment is absurd. No sane person would buy a policy like that from an actual insurance company.

The second wrong idea is that Taiwan “took”