photo from The Storm Media

Dream of “Leaving China for America” Leaves President Lai Trapped

United Daily News Editorial, August 10, 2025

After the United States announced a 20-percent reciprocal tariff on Taiwan, it went further by imposing a 100-percent tariff on semiconductors. President Lai Ching-te claimed the 20-percent levy was only “temporary,” yet the Office of Trade Negotiations, Executive Yuan, confirmed that the 20 percent would be added on top of existing tariffs. The Lai administration kept the public in the dark, while the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) continued to chant slogans about “Taiwan and the United States getting rich together.” On the one hand, the government struggles within the black box of U.S.-Taiwan negotiations; on the other, it longs for American favor. U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff stick appears not to have shaken President Lai’s “decouple from China, embrace America” dream awake.

President Lai once harbored ambitions of “walking into the White House” as well as the desire to “decouple from China and join America.” While he openly stated the former as a political goal, that fantasy was swiftly shattered by Washington. The latter originated as a response to an academic proposal to “decouple from China and join the North,” but although President Lai later distanced himself from that phrase, the outside world believes his true intention is “decouple from China, embrace America”—and that he is still deeply immersed in the dream.

Since taking office, President Lai has manipulated anti-China sentiment domestically, pushing for mass recalls; abroad, he has sought to prove loyalty to the United States through repeated political offerings. These domestic and foreign maneuvers are mutually reinforcing, forming what is essentially a “decouple from China, embrace America” deployment. But Lai’s haste and misjudgment have deepened domestic divisions, intensified suspicions abroad, and driven himself into a corner.

Recently, public opinion in both Japan and the United States has taken note of President Lai’s predicament. Yomiuri Shimbun issued a rare editorial criticizing the mass recalls, urging President Lai to heal social rifts. Its headline directly accused him of “seeking to exclude opposition parties,” contradicting his claims of “practicing democracy” and delivering “greater democracy.” International media have seen through the hollowness of President Lai’s professed democratic values, showing a lack of trust in his administration. How then can President Lai still call for “global democratic partners” to defend democracy together?

Moreover, the global democratic values that President Lai champions hold no appeal for Mr. Trump; the “democratic supply chain” he promotes has been dismantled piece by piece by Mr. Trump’s global tariff war. Former senior U.S. State Department adviser Christian Whiton wrote an analysis titled “How Taiwan Lost Trump,” arguing that a series of missteps by the Lai administration have distanced Taiwan from Mr. Trump—to the point where even President Lai’s planned transit through New York was “humiliatingly rejected” by the former president.

While opinions may differ on Whiton’s assessment, he sharply noted that Taiwan’s image in the United States is actually poor and declining. President Lai’s pro-American, anti-China stance, Whiton stressed, has not led Americans to see Taiwan as an asset in countering China, but rather as a liability that could drag the United States into war with Beijing. From the perspective of Mr. Trump’s team, the Lai administration is constrained by left-wing cultural agendas (such as anti-nuclear and transgender issues), indifferent to American business interests, unserious about defense, and unwilling to address the trade deficit. Clearly, the “Lai skepticism” in Washington remains unresolved. President Lai is drifting ever farther from the White House—his “decouple from China, embrace America” dream remains intact, but has already turned into a nightmare for both Taiwan and the United States.

In the U.S.-Taiwan tariff negotiations, the Lai administration has operated opaquely, misjudged the situation, pursued flawed strategies, and squandered leverage. Believing that kowtowing might earn leniency, it has instead led Taiwan to a humiliating defeat while concealing the truth about the cumulative tariffs. The DPP has even deliberately misinterpreted Mr. Trump’s remarks on tariffs to mislead the public into thinking “Taiwan and the U.S. will get rich together.” Minister Liu Chin-ching of the National Development Council has also analyzed three potential semiconductor industry responses to the tariffs, concluding that with uniform global tax rates, the impact on Taiwan would be minimal—and even a “positive” for the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which has already built plants in the United States.

The Lai administration may downplay the issue, conceal the facts, and mislead the public—even viewing the crisis of Taiwanese manufacturers being forced to relocate to the United States as an opportunity to achieve “decouple from China, embrace America.” But in the long run, cutting Taiwan off from the mainland market will see its high-tech industry—from talent and technology to capital—uprooted by the United States. Those able to relocate, like TSMC, will become “American TSMC”; those unable will be left stranded, while traditional industries collapse en masse. Taiwan will be hollowed out—is this truly President Lai’s “decouple from China, embrace America” dream?

With the mass recall effort’s resounding failure, the humiliating rejection of his New York transit, the concealed reality of tariff defeat, and the wholesale removal of Taiwan’s semiconductor crown jewels, the Lai administration has repeatedly stumbled domestically and hit walls abroad. President Lai himself faces mounting pressure both at home and overseas—yet has managed to leave Taiwan with nothing but losses.

 

From: https://udn.com/news/story/7338/8929075

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