TAIPEI, Taiwan – When Donald Trump lost re-election in November, there was one place far from his “Make America Great Again” marches that also felt the loss a lot: Taiwan.
Many Taiwanese favor Trump because of his government’s tough stance against China and support for Taiwan, a self-governing island claimed by Beijing and under increasing Chinese pressure. Many people feared that President Joe Biden would forget them while trying to restore Washington’s relations with Beijing.
But so far, Biden has shown strong support for Taiwan, sometimes going even further than the Trump administration did.
Taiwan is one of the reasons why tensions between Beijing and Washington remain high, setting the stage for a rock meeting between the two governments this week – their first important personal talks since Biden became president.
Foreign Minister Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan will meet with senior Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Alaska on Thursday and Friday.
Blinken and Sullivan will sit opposite a confident Chinese delegation: Beijing has captured opposition to its rule in Hong Kong, expelled territory in the disputed South China Sea and bounced back from the coronavirus, which was first introduced in Wuhan, China. It has also positioned itself as a benefactor by sending free or cheap homemade vaccines around the world.
At the other end of the table is a Biden government that has already identified China as America’s most important challenge. Blinken, who called China the “biggest geopolitical test of the 21st century” for the United States, promised during a visit to Japan on Tuesday to counter the growing “coercion and aggression” in Asia. On Wednesday, he announced sanctions against a further 24 Chinese and Hong Kong officials for oppressing Beijing in the area.
Download the NBC News app for news and politics
Zhao Lijian, spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said last week that the US had proposed the Alaska meeting, and that Beijing hoped that the two parties’ could focus on cooperation, manage differences and develop healthy and sustainable of China-US relations’.
Under Trump, who blames China for the pandemic, a painful trade war between the two countries escalated, and a weary Beijing outlined its conditions for an improvement in relations with Washington.
Wang said last month that Beijing wants tariffs on Chinese goods removed, restrictions on Chinese technology companies lifted, and that they no longer interfere in the issues of Taiwan, Hong Kong and the treatment of Uyghur minorities in the northwest. of Xinjiang.
Yet Biden has been pushing these issues in his first telephone conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping since he became president, suggesting that the two parties are unlikely to find much common ground in Alaska.
“If you look at all the signal that Beijing sent to the Biden government, it basically says that the Trump administration has ruined the relationship, it should undo all that has been done … and then we can start talking, “without acknowledging any of the reasons why President Trump undertook the actions he took,” said Drew Thompson, a former official in the Ministry of Defense with responsibility for China.
“There is no reason for the Biden government to follow the logic when China offers absolutely nothing in return,” said Thompson, a visiting research fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.
The US has said that while it will talk about how the two countries can work together, it will also raise issues, including a lack of transparency over the Covid-19 outbreak, efforts to drive democracy back to Hong Kong , violation of rights and Taiwan.
The Biden government has so far shown strong support for democratic Taiwan, which has been ruled separately from China since 1949. While the vast majority of the Taiwanese public is against being incorporated into its great communist neighbor, Beijing’s ultimate goal is to take control of Taiwan. – by force if necessary.
Over the past year, Beijing has increased military pressure on Taiwan, regularly sent fighter jets to its air defense identification zone and provoked the reaction on Taiwan’s air force.
Last week, adm. Philip Davidson, commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Order, said China would be able to invade Taiwan within the next six years, Beijing said China’s military threat was an enchantment.
If China attacks Taiwan, the chances of the US intervening to defend the island are ‘very high’, said Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Washington DC Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“If the US allowed China to take Taiwan by force, it would lose credibility with its allies and partners in the region, and possibly encourage Beijing to use force against other countries to resolve territorial disputes in its favor,” she said.
The Trump administration has taken unprecedented measures to boost U.S. support for Taiwan, including laws to deal with pressure from China and send the two highest-ranking U.S. officials to visit the island in 40 years. It also sold significantly more weapons to Taiwan than previous administrations.
These actions won Trump support in Taiwan: it was the only place in Europe and Asia-Pacific polled by YouGov ahead of last year’s presidential election, where more people wanted him to win against Biden.
Under Biden, however, the US said its support for Taiwan was ‘rock solid’, and they invited Taiwan’s representative in the US to attend its inauguration – the first time this has happened since Washington severed official ties with Taiwan. favor of Beijing in 1979.
This has reassured Taipei – though skepticism still exists.
Chen Hao, 26, a resident of Taipei, said he was “a little nervous” when Trump lost the presidency. “I did not know what Biden would be like, because I knew when he was under Obama, both were very gentle with China.”
“Now I’m not sure … he’s a little stronger than I thought, but that’s about it.”