Buy U.S. arms, create U.S. semiconductor jobs to appease Trump: Expert

Washington, Jan. 19 (CNA) Taiwan should request arms purchases worth billions of dollars from the United States and create more jobs there through semiconductor-related investments to placate U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, according to an American scholar.

"Those two things seem to be the most likely ways for Taiwan to diminish Trump's complaints, and also reduce the fear that he will use Taiwan as a bargaining chip," Thomas J. Shattuck, a senior program manager at the University of Pennsylvania's Perry World House policy research center, told CNA last month.

"Putting together a multi-billion dollar package [of U.S. arms purchases] within the first six months" would be a "great way" for Taiwan to signal to Trump that the president-elect's concerns have been heard, the expert on China and Taiwan said.

Taiwan also needs to remind Trump that Taipei "pays more" than the United States' NATO allies for its own defense, Shattuck said, referring to the fact Taiwan's defense budget exceeds NATO's target of 2 percent of GDP for its member states, which Trump had previously "harped on" about.

Trump, whose inauguration ceremony for his second term as U.S. president takes place on Monday (U.S. time), said on the campaign trail that Taiwan "stole our chip business" and needed to "pay us for defense."

During his first term from 2017 to 2021, the Republican president did not make those "accusations," Shattuck said, which made lawmakers and others in Taiwan a "little afraid" about a second Trump term.

However, Shattuck argued that "Trump and his team understand the strategic nature of keeping Taiwan as Taiwan, keeping the alliances strong."

Trump's "very pro Taiwan" picks for top roles in his administration, such as Senator Marco Rubio for U.S. secretary of state, further suggest that Taiwan will not "get sold out for a big trade deal with China" during the next four years, Shattuck said.

"If the big great power competition between the U.S. and China continues, you don't sell Taiwan out on day one or the last day in the office," the expert continued.

Shattuck, who is also a non-resident research fellow at both the Global Taiwan Institute and the Foreign Policy Research Institute, suggested that "Taiwan keeps China boxed in" due to its geographical location.

U.S. strategic interests in the region, he suggested, should dissuade Washington from putting "any deals on the table with any country to give up a country or give up a piece of land or do any sort of thing."