TAIPEI, Taiwan – A Chinese government that is poised to attack Taiwan would be “afraid” of former President Trump being elected to the White House again, a Taiwanese defense expert said.
Dr. Ming-Shih Shen, director of the Institute for National Defense and Security Research’s national security division, told Fox News Digital that Beijing’s ruling Chinese Communist Party likely views President Biden’s policy toward China as more moderate than Trump’s.
“If China’s attitude is…to maintain the stability and peace in [the] Taiwan Strait and increase relations between the United States and China, then either is no problem,” Shen said. “But if China [shows] increased aggressive posture, I think China [would be more] afraid of Trump than Biden.”
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Shen said Trump is viewed as likely to have a “very strong” response to a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan. However, it was not just Trump himself, Shen argued, but also the officials he surrounded himself with.
That includes China hawks like former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Matthew Pottinger, who served on Trump’s National Security Council.
China sanctioned 28 members of the former Trump administration on the same day Biden took over the White House in January 2021, including Pompeo and Pottinger, accusing them of having “violated China’s sovereignty.”
Dr. I-Chung Lai, of the Taiwanese think tank The Prospect Foundation, told Fox News Digital that Taiwan has “appreciation” for both Trump and Biden’s handling of the situation between their island and China.
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He noted, however, that there was a significant expansion of U.S.-Taiwan relations under Trump.
“We…notice that it is during Trump, when he became president in the year 2016, the whole policy over time has experienced fundamental changes, as well as policy toward China, and actually for the better for Taiwan,” Lai said. “It is also under Trump that the U.S. started to regularly sent ships through the Taiwan Strait, which helped to address the security issues here tremendously.”
“A lot of people here, they really appreciate what President Trump did to Taiwan, but they also expressed the similar appreciation for [what] the Biden administration [is] doing for Taiwan.”
However, Trump’s more bombastic comments have made people in Taiwan nervous as well, Lai said, pointing to remarks last year in which Trump claimed the Taiwanese semiconductor industry was “stealing” jobs from the U.S.
“Those are words that are a little bit concerning to us,” Lai said.
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The U.S.-Taiwan partnership in that industry is viewed as critical to both governments, with Taiwan producing roughly 60% of the world’s semiconductors.
Trump made those comments after the Biden administration reached an agreement with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd to expand its operations into Arizona. Biden’s Commerce Department signed the $6.6 billion deal, which is expected to create over 25,000 new jobs across manufacturing and construction, this past April.
