DEFENSE/Taiwan urged to boost defense spending during Trump's second term

Taipei, Jan. 22 (CNA) Taiwan's former top envoy to the United States and a defense expert called on Taiwan's government Wednesday to increase its defense spending to prove the country's mettle to Donald Trump, who has begun a second term as U.S. president.

Trump has raised questions over how supportive of Taiwan he will be after saying on the campaign trail that Taiwan "stole our chip business" and needed to "pay us for defense."

He has also suggested that Taiwan pay the U.S. for protection and suggested that it increase defense spending to 10 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP).

Speaking at a seminar in Taipei on Wednesday, Stanley Kao (高碩泰), a former top Taiwan envoy to Washington, said Taiwan should not worry too much about Trump's campaign rhetoric because turning that rhetoric into actual policies requires going through a process.

Also, Trump's new Cabinet is stacked with Taiwan-friendly people who are considered hawkish on Beijing, including his choice for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, a foreign policy hawk on China and Iran who has proposed a number of Taiwan-friendly bills, Kao said.

Kao argued, nonetheless, that given Trump's "transactional" nature, Taiwan should make a strong argument to Washington that Taiwan-U.S. relations are "irreplaceable."

That should include, he said, gradually increasing its defense budget to beef up its defense capabilities, reinforce its supply chain resilience, and ensure the "continuation and normalization" of Taiwan-U.S. relations.

Echoing Kao's argument, Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the Taiwan military-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said at the same forum that Taiwan will likely remain strategically important to the Trump administration.

He argued that Trump's interest in securing control of Greenland and the Panama Canal showed that his national security team was prioritizing the recalibration of the U.S.' presence in geographically strategic locations.

The Taiwan Strait, being a shipping and air corridor of global significance and part of the First Island Chain that forms the first line of defense against China, is of great strategic value to the U.S. as well and will likely factor into that approach, Su said.

That is why Taiwan needs to increase defense spending to enhance its defense resilience and prove to Trump that Taipei is a reliable partner to Washington and is willing to do its part in boosting its self-defense capabilities, the defense expert said.

Su also noted Trump's appointment of a number of China-hawks including Rubio and his nominee for secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth.

The appointments suggest that Trump will be playing the "good cop" while his China-hawkish national security team will play the "bad cop," with Trump adopting a more sympathetic demeanor and his team adopting a hostile approach to get others to cooperate.

Kao, who served as Taiwan's representative to the U.S. from May 2016 to July 2020, facilitated the historic telephone call between then-President-elect Trump and then President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in December 2016.

The call marked the first time that a U.S. president or president-elect had directly spoken with a Taiwanese president since Taipei and Washington severed official diplomatic relations in 1979.

Kao retired in July 2020 and now serves as the senior advisor of a local think-tank, according to the Institute of National Policy Research, which organized Wednesday's seminar.