‘Xi Jinping will not determine the future of Asia or of Taiwan,’ said the former U.S. secretary of state.
TAIPEI, Taiwan—Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he believes President-elect Donald Trump will take a similar approach to Taiwan as he did during his first term in office.
Speaking at a
forum in Taipei on Jan. 6, Pompeo pointed out that China was identified as an adversary in Trump’s national security strategy, which was released in December 2017. On the other hand, the idea that Taiwan is a “linchpin” for the American economy is “not lost on American leaders,” Pompeo said.
“My full expectation is you will see much the same worldview emanate from the White House, broadly speaking, and the American security establishment that you saw in the first four years,” Pompeo said. “I don’t think it'll be dramatically different from that.”
Pompeo said that the first Trump administration had developed a “pretty effective model of deterrence against adversaries who wanted to undermine the set of rules and values that the people of Taiwan and the people of the United States hold dear.”
In the 2017 national security strategy
document, the first Trump administration
referred to China and Russia as “revisionist powers” that are seeking to contest the United States’ “geopolitical advantages and trying to change the international order in their favor.”
When his first term ended, Trump became known as the U.S. president who
broke with his predecessors to confront the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) head-on, pushing back against its malign and hostile actions.
The United States is Taiwan’s most important ally and biggest arms supplier. Taiwan is now facing an ever-aggressive China, which seeks to seize the self-governing island and break through the first island chain to project its air and naval power in the western Pacific and beyond.
Pompeo said the Taiwanese shouldn’t feel uncertain about the incoming Trump administration’s stance toward Taiwan.
“I would suggest less nervousness and more willingness to be forthright and engage,” Pompeo said. “If Taiwan engages academically, engages commercially, engages government to government in deep and consistent ways, the relationship will be really good, and the opportunity to create more freedom for Taiwan, for the United States, and for the entire region will increase dramatically.
“[CCP leader] Xi Jinping will not determine the future of Asia or of Taiwan.”
The
Biden administration and the first
Trump administration both approved
billions in arms sales to Taiwan. However, it was the Trump administration that first took the sales to the next level in decades, according to Taiwan-based Institute for National Policy Research.
“In less than four years, the Trump administration’s arms sales to Taiwan have significantly surpassed any previous U.S. administrations over the past 40 years, no matter quantitatively or qualitatively,” the institute wrote in an
article published in November 2020.
“Taiwan’s defense capabilities have been substantially elevated and integrated on reconnaissance, combat, long-range precision, and multiple deterrence.”
Pompeo also applauded
Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), whom the former secretary said “shares my views and love and understands the importance of this shared [U.S.-Taiwan] relationship.”
Rubio, a longtime China hawk, has introduced several bills in recent years in support of Taiwan. In 2022, he
introduced legislation called the Taiwan Peace Through Strength Act to fast-track the transfers of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. The following year, he
introduced the Taiwan Relations Reinforcement Act to create an interagency task force focused on Taiwan policy and promote the island’s involvement in international organizations.
In April, Rubio and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.)
introduced a resolution commemorating the 45th anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act. The late President Jimmy Carter signed the act into law in April 1979 after Washington changed diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing earlier that year.
Pompeo, on his fourth visit to Taiwan since 2022, said he couldn’t come to the island when he was the secretary of state. Keith Krach, the then-U.S. undersecretary of state,
visited Taiwan in September 2020, becoming the
highest-ranking State Department official to travel to the island in decades.
“One day, an American secretary of state will come to this place; perhaps, Lord willing, it'll be Secretary Rubio,” Pompeo said.
