American Thought Leaders - Why a Taiwan Invasion Would Trigger Trillions in Global Losses | Amb. Alexander Yui

Episode Date: May 2, 2026

An island nation only one-third the size of Virginia, Taiwan produces more than 90 percent of the world’s most advanced chips and more than 90 percent of the servers powering the AI revolution. And last year, Taiwan became the United States’ fourth-largest trading partner—after Mexico, Canada, and China.More than one-fifth of global maritime trade goes through the Taiwan Strait, according to a Center for Strategic and International Studies analysis, and any conflict over Taiwan would be devastating for the global economy—and likely far worse than the economic disruptions caused by the Iran War.Chinese leader Xi Jinping has told the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to be ready for a successful Taiwan invasion by 2027, the PLA’s 100th anniversary.In this episode, I sit down with Taiwan’s representative to the United States, Ambassador Alexander Yui, to understand why Taiwan matters and what’s at stake as the Chinese Communist Party has ramped up its campaign to isolate, intimidate, and encircle Taiwan in recent years.Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te’s recent visit to Eswatini—Taiwan’s only African ally—had to be abruptly postponed when Seychelles, Madagascar, and Mauritius revoked overflight permissions—presumably due to pressure from Beijing.“They are constantly harassing our naval and air surroundings, trying to create panic and uneasiness,” Yui says.Since 2013, Beijing has built more than two dozen militarized outposts in disputed waters in the South China Sea and has recently been militarizing yet another artificial island known as Antelope Reef.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Taiwan, it's an island nation one-third of the size of Virginia, yet it produces over 90% of the world's most advanced chips and more than 90% of the servers powering the AI revolution. And last year, it became America's fourth largest trading partner. The Taiwan states itself, any conflict in that straits, it will cause a crisis much larger than what is happening on Iran in the state of Hormuz. It's in the trillions and trillions of dollars.

In this episode, I'm sitting down with Taiwan's rights. representative to the United States, Ambassador Alexander Yi, to understand why Taiwan matters and what's at stake as the Chinese Communist Party ramps up its campaign to isolate, intimidate, and encircle Taiwan. That's only the part that you see, which is a military part, but PRC has been also using other means, grade-zone tactics, using disinformation, cyber attacks, and other means to try to destabilize Taiwan from within. That's just an example of what we face, but they do that to other parties, including the United States.

This is American Thought Leaders, and I'm Yan Yek. Ambassador Alexander Yi, such a pleasure to have you on American Thought Leaders. Thank you, Jan, for having me on your show. Xi Jinping, the leader of communist China, has said that he wants the People's Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan in 27. There have been recent actions by the United States It's in Venezuela, very significant. In Iran, there's still an Iran war happening. It's in a ceasefire at the moment. But the question here is, have there been any recalculations? In your mind, in the PRC, what is Xi Jinping thinking? How is this affecting things? Are there any changes?

Well, of course they are. And I want to point out that as China has mentioned to United States, that Taiwan is the greatest risk factor between the relations between China and the United States. Actually, I believe that it's the other way, that the people of republic of China is the greatest risk factor for peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits and in the Pacific region. They're the ones for the aggressors. They're the ones who are, as you mentioned, militarily preparing for conflict. And people in Republic of China has engaged in the largest peacetime, military preparedness in human history, and I think that's unfounded because their borders

are not on the threat. But yet, with all the things that are occurring around the world, you mentioned Venezuela, Iran and others, I think it shows a result from the United States to use the necessary tools to fix problems or achieve its objectives. And obviously, there will be a relevance or reference to that on the Indo-Pacific, in particular, to the Taiwan Straits. There's a lot of debate in America about how much security should the U.S. actually be providing to Taiwan and how important U.S. security is to Taiwan and how important Taiwan

is to America. Sure. Can you extrapolate on this question from the Taiwanese perspective? Taiwan is relevant for many reasons. And first of all, Taiwan is facing a lot of challenges, aggressions from the people who welcome China, constantly, militarily, but also coercions from many other aspects, you know, internal grade zone tactics, economic coercion, et cetera. So we do, there is an actual threat to the existence of Taiwan, to the people of Taiwan, as

a democracy. The threat that we face is not only ours alone, is other countries. the Philippines and others. So you ask any country in that region, you know, so what is the biggest threat that they're facing? It is the people of the Republic of China. So, but why doesn't matter to American people? Well, first of all, we're part of the First Island chain, the line of democracy that are facing and contending this aggression from mainland China. And it's not only about Taiwan or Japan, but going beyond that. And And NATO, Secretary General, he said it very well recently when he was in Washington, D.C.,

that just as NATO is keeping the Atlantic alliance safe and sound on that part, but also us on the Pacific, we're also holding the line. So United States borders are safe. And I think that matters to the United States for that. But also, Taiwan has become an important partner to the United States in terms of technology, in terms of investment, in terms of education, and all sorts of the things that we're engaging in the United States for the last few years. So we've become a reliable but also a trusted and important partner with the United States, especially in the age of AI advancement. The United States is intending on preserving the AI supremacy in the United States.

States and asking partners, including Taiwan, to reach that. So to achieve that, Taiwan is a key partner in that. We not only make most of the advanced chips in Taiwan, 95% of the chips, but also Taiwanese companies make 90 plus percent of the data servers and the AI servers that runs the AI realm. So we not only do the hardware, but also we are much into this alliance with the United States. And we subscribe with the United States this Paxilica

declaration along with the United States earlier in January. But also we signed a memorandum with the United States on economic security, on red earth collaboration, et cetera. And also importance of maintaining a safe supply chain, meaning a non-red supply chain, in special technological field. So all that matters to what the United States is. And also we're well aware that the well-being of Taiwan is ours to care. So we've been told that the United States should not care more about Taiwan security than the people of Taiwan.

And we do. So we're increasing our defense expenditures. We're trying to pass a $40 billion additional budget to procure more arms and be more up-to-date with the way we have asymmetric warfare against a larger contender. And those are the things that we're doing. And that's why United States, we appreciate United States long-standing support of Taiwan based on the Time Relations Act and the Six Assurances. And this gives some stability to Taiwan. And we have subscribed to the peace true strength theory, and we are doing whatever we can to do that, not on the military side, but also on the whole society resiliency,

on the military reserves, et cetera. So we are doing our best to preserve our democracy, but we also appreciate friends such as United States and others who are helping us maintain our freedom. So you mentioned peace through strength. How important is that? Peace to strength is the mantra that is being said in the United States, but also we follow that.

very closely and we believe in place to strength. You know, as we want to achieve peace, and we love to negotiate, you know, willing to negotiate with the PRC about the peace and the stability of the time of straight, but you negotiate from a position of strength, not a weakness. So having a strong defense is the best way forward and also the best way to the event itself, you know, facing a larger aggressor or enemy.

or enemy. So for Taiwan, we've been for the last few years doing a lot of expenditure on improving our self-defense capabilities. So we've actually almost double our defense expenditure for the last 10 years to be better modernizing our equipment, the local production of more missiles and arms and even airplanes and submarines, all that to show to all friends that we are ready to do whatever it takes for ourselves to defend ourselves better. But at the same time, again, as I mentioned at the beginning, the threat is not only for Taiwan, but also countries in the region, so for us to be able to be enduring peacetime to better know ourselves and what to do during crisis, the interoperability of our forces, or the interconnection of

intercommunication of our forces is important. Well I think in United States national security strategy that was announced late last year it was very clear on the United States focus obviously on the Western Hemisphere which is a priority but also made several missions about this peace stability of the Indo-Pacific in particular but also about Taiwan where United States mentioned that it It does not support a change of status quo from either side, and especially not through military or economic coercion.

People who political China is trying to internalize the waters between Taiwan and Myanmar and China, you know, the Taiwan Straits. Actually, I just got word that they're starting to build on another reef. Yeah, well, that's not an accident. Yeah. They said that before when they were building these huge, huge bases now in the South China seas that they were, you know, we shouldn't worry because it was for humanitarian reasons.

It was a place to house, you know, fishermen in times of, you know, storms or house planes for search and rescue and that we shouldn't be concerned. But now they're full-fledged military bases, you know, with missiles and fighters and bombers, et cetera. So, yeah, we should be worried, and other countries should also warn China that they should be responsible and prevent unnecessary aggression against us. But the region itself, the Taiwan Straits itself, any conflict in that straits, it's, it will cause a crisis

much larger than what is happening on Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. There's been several studies about what would happen is in the trillions and trillions of dollars. It's not only Taiwan's ports which will be affected, or Taiwan's trade will be affected, it will affect China's trade ports, Japan, Korea, etc. So it's something that's almost unimaginable if a crisis happens to that. So there's a lot of stake not only for us, the countries in the region, but also for the United States, which is obviously a main commercial partner with us and the region.

Also Europe. Again, NATO, Secretary General mentioned that, you know, nature cannot overlook what happens in the Indo-Pacific because it has direct stakes to European countries as well. Hey everyone, I'm going to be trying to get some more sponsors for American thought leaders. And the reason is I want to try to get it on more of the non-paywall platforms where we'll use the sponsors to kind of support the show. And one of the sponsors that I really appreciate is American Hartford Gold.

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Right? Like, it happens often and it's loud and it's significant. And so maybe just explain that because I don't think a lot of people understand what this is, what, how it's interpreted by the Taiwanese government. Well, you know, well, first of all, I want to, you know, go to the basics. The people's republic of China, you know, led by the Chinese communist regime that was formed in October 1st of 1949. Since their conception, they never had control or rule over Taiwan, which is where the seat of the government, the Republic of China is. So their claims on Taiwan is a fictitious claim because they never really control, they never control Taiwan. And they're trying to say, well, Taiwan is ours because historically is in part of China and

we're China, so it's ours. Well, if you use historical facts to claim, something then again, Mongolia can claim China because it's part of the Mongolian Empire, and then what about all the lands that China laws to Russia, etc. So this is a never-ending story. The bottom line, you're saying the People's Republic of China has never had Taiwan under its auspices. So never. And then now they're making these claims and trying to have the international communities say that, yes, you have to recognize that we own Taiwan and through, you know, If not, I'll conquer it militarily, or they're using this also misuse of United States Resolutions 2758, which has nothing to do with Taiwan.

But it said that article means that we own it. It's trying to create this international legal basis to claim Taiwan, which again, you look at the article and doesn't mention Taiwan at all. It also only makes reference to who represents China in the United Nations. But as the Chinese military has grown stronger, and they obviously spent a lot of money to strengthen their military, they've become bolder, and they used the visit of Speaker Pelosi to Taiwan as an excuse. They say, well, you cross the line, we're going to start, you know, pressing you. There used to be a medium line between, and the Taiwan Straits between Taiwan and mainland China, that both sides respect that, you know, their planes, militaries will basically not cross each other's medium line,

but after that they've crossed the line it being harassing Taiwanese surrounding airspace and naval. They haven't really reached Taiwan's airspace yet, nor naval or territorial waters. They've been on the identification zones nearby, but on a constant basis, depending on the date, sometimes more, sometimes less. We're constantly harassing our naval and airs surroundings, trying to coerce Taiwan to create panic and an easiness within the Chinese, Taiwanese society. But that's only the part that you see, which is the military part, but PRC has been also using that other means to create dissension or create disability or nervousness within Taiwan, trying to, but not really working through, again, this great-on tactics.

cutting of our cables that communicates with the outside world, trying to drive wedges between our different political parties, using disinformation, cyber attacks, and other means to try to destabilize terrain from within. And that's something that we're already facing, and that's part of the aggression that China is using to us. But that's just an example of what we face, but they do that to other parties, including the United States.

I want to dig into that a little bit because, and there was recently, you know, the Taiwanese president was actually unable to travel to an important event because presumably China coerced a number of African countries to deny airspace access. I want to talk about that. But explain to me a little more about how are we to understand the leader of the major opposition, single major opposition party. in in Taiwan traveling to Beijing meeting with Xi Jinping and ostensibly incredibly warm relations how do you read how do how are we supposed to read that here well I mean again the fact that you know they talk to each other talking is good you know it reduces misunderstandings they were for example even prison Trump's pending trip to Beijing to meet President Xi or the the chairwoman from the Kuomintan party visiting Beijing and meeting Chairman Xi.

I think these are, you know, positive in the way that, you know, it creates communication, reduces miscommunication or misunderstandings, and will be hopefully conducive to, you know, peace and stability. But what people in particular China should be aware of that, you know, Taiwan, Republic of China and Taiwan is a sovereign, democratic, and independent, country and we are a democracy that has an elected government. So while he's talking to one party in Taiwan, we also urge them to also talk to all parties in Taiwan, including the party who is in government, which is the DPP government, you know, the ruling party.

But I think they've been not wanting to do so because somehow they still think that the China-Taiwan, the debacle. is something of a historical CCP-KMT struggle. And therefore, they're not willing to talk to the other parties. But, again, they should recognize the fact that we are a democracy and people in Taiwan choose their leaders, choose their governments every four years. And currently the party, who is in government,

is the Democratic Progressive Party, and they should also talk to them. Yeah, and it's just I'll elucidate this a little bit because it's in fact the party that, basically landed in Taiwan and set up government in Taiwan, the KMT that is now the party that is developing those relations with the mainland. Well, I mean, the fact that they approach each other and talk to each other again, as long as it's conducive peace, it's okay.

Well, except that they're denying, you know, the same people that are having these conversations, they're denying your president or having access to going to a conference in an African country. Well, that's the problem because you cannot pretend that things are rosy when they're talking to each other, you know, like as if between the Taiwanese and Chinese people, in Milan, China, things are okay, but what happens outside of it, then we, they still treat us as rebels, you know, and therefore not recognize who we are. And our president's recent, you know, had to cancel in the last moment his trip to East

Swatini. This is the reality that we face. Taiwan nowadays is a relevant economy in the world. As a matter of fact, last year, 2025, we became the United States' fourth largest trading partner. So while the King and Queen of England is visiting the United States now, but it must be aware that we do more trade with the United States that UK, United Kingdom, and thus trade with the United States. But while the King of England is traveling to United States in other places, my president has been prevented because of PRC's coercion to other countries

and try to isolate Taiwan politically and internationally. And that's something that we think is unjustified and unfair. But also it relates the fact that the caveat of working with or investing or doing business with people who look at China because they will weaponize things according to their interests. For example, my president's intended flight to Africa was stopped because they coerced a few countries in Africa

to cancel the already permitted passages through their flight information region. But at the same time, there are similar events that people in Korea, for example, on Panama. There was a court ruling on ports, regarding who controls the ports in Panama. And because PRC didn't like it, they started causing Panamanian flagships

in China by inducing undue inspections and harassing of Panama ships, which including the United States and other countries that also voiced their opposition of weaponizing maritime safety for their own needs. And that's the danger of doing business with China. And that's the same reason why Taiwan, which used to be heavily invested in China,

we are being decoupling Chinese presence, for example, 12 years ago, over almost 85% of our foreign direct investment was going to mainland China, because that's where our factories were, that's 12 years ago. Two years ago, our direct investment in China came down to less than 7%.

Last year, it was less than 4% of our FDI going to China. Because why? China has an unreliable place. an unrelival partner. They're willing to weaponize, coerce us if they think SIMFIT. And, you know, that's not a healthy environment to do in business. But it's not only Taiwan who's diminishing their investment is United States, Japan, and other countries who are also, you know, having the same feelings and are leaving China. But where's Taiwan's investments going? Two years ago, 40% of the FDA was coming to the United States. And that's so we have a bustling commercial

investment relationships in the United States based on our common values. I'm trying to figure out who the other countries are, because you said the top four. One of them is Canada, I know. And another one is Taiwan. No, the only countries who do more trade with the United States than Taiwan is your neighbors, Canada and Mexico, and China, and we were fourth. And also last year for the first time in, I don't know when many, many, many, many days. decades, Taiwanese exports to United States were larger than Chinese exports to United States.

It's a little Taiwan, you know, exporting more. But partly because Taiwanese factories who were in China exporting to United States and now they've left, and now they're exporting from elsewhere from United States, from Canada, producing United States, exporting from Mexico and other regions. And one other fact, you know, to highlight Taiwan's relevance in economy and to the world. Last week we replaced the UK as the sixth seventh largest stock market. And this week we also overcome Canada as the sixth largest stock market. So Taiwan economically is relevant to the world, but yet politically, internationally, we've been facing this blockage from people who become China for us to be able to act normally in an international scene. And that's something that we've been appealing to the world that Taiwan deserves to have

a space international arena. You know, another thing that always impresses me about Taiwan is the kind of robust democracy, you know, that votes counted instantly public. It's like a public phenomenon. It's like a party basically, right, to vote counting on the day of election. It's just, it's something to behold. Maybe we'll cut in a little clip of what that looks like because I think that it's kind of inspiring actually. Well, you know, it's low tech, but it works. And also people get to, you know, look at it personally. We have obviously, you know, expectors from each party when they do the balloting, you know, counting. And it's a very low key. Just, you know, show up, show the ballot,

count and then you put a little scratch one and then but it's very effective and you know by the same night we already know who have won and most elections that's the case but yeah that's democracy at work and it works I'll just add one more thing which is that the GDP per capita in Taiwan is three times that of China and a lot of people I like to mention this fact because every time I mention it almost every time because really how's that possible Oh, right? Right?

Yeah, well, I mean... I mean, I'm unabashedly a fan of Taiwan here, okay? So I don't want to... I'll add one more thing here, okay? This is just something that struck me. One of the sort of criticisms leveled against the U.S. and other countries that have been democracies for a very long time, much longer than Taiwan, is that they've gotten too comfortable.

Okay, yeah. And so I'm wondering how much you think, just this very very... fact that Taiwan's freedom is always a bit of a question mark, given this totalitarian dictatorship on the edge, saying we're going to take you over when we feel like it. How much do you think that might actually contribute to this kind of robustness around democracy, about economy, all these areas? Well, it is a hard struggle. Since I was born in Taiwan many, many decades ago, we

We were already confronting this situation, which is a menace from the other side, mainland China, towards the survival of the people on Taiwan. And so facing this threat, we've learned to be self-reliant. And as we had to leave, we were founding members of United Nations, mind you, but then things changed, and eventually we had to be forced to leave the United Nations. Many countries cut relations with Taiwan. So at one point, there was a fairly sad situation, grim and dim situation in Taiwan,

feeling like the world was leaving Taiwan, would be cast aside, were being orphans of the world. So we never gave up and being self-reliant and working on things that we think it's correct. And at the same time, we were developing our democracy, to be, you know, actually, as a matter of fact, as the United States celebrates 2050 years of, you know, being a democratic republic, we're celebrating 30 years of direct presidential elections.

So we had our first general suffrage for the citizens to be able to elect its own president in the year 2000. So we are very proud of our achievements. But at the same time, you know, we developed our economy. We try to link with the world in terms of economy. and we've been fairly successful. This evolution from an authoritarian government in the past, involving to a full democracy in Taiwan. It was sort of a fairly peaceful transition.

There were some struggles, but general speaking, the peaceful transition, at the same time we're developing our economy. Our per capita income in 1949 was probably less than $100. But now we're doing pretty well, And in certain cases, our per capita has surpassed that of Korea even. But again, we're not just sitting on our laurels, but we know that it's a constant struggle, and we'll continue to do so. But at the same time, many countries, which, although they don't have the, you know,

form of relations with Taiwan, such as United States and Japan and many countries, but it's not the same as, you know, hitting to people's republic of China's claim of this one China principle, which includes like Taiwan is mine, and this is one big China, including Taiwan, which is in mine. And they want every single other country to recognize their principle. Actually, many countries have its own one-China policy that differs greatly from PRC's one-chana principle. And in each country's one-chana policy,

they can assert their own way of dealing with China, at the same time with Taiwan. As I mentioned earlier, United States case, they have a one-chana policy, but at the same time they have this Taiwan Relations Act and the Sixth Insurances in which, based on those groundworks, there's a thriving partnership and interaction with the United States. And that does, and that law does reflect, I guess, the United States support for Taiwan. Yeah, which is very strong. It's the law of the land. And also, although China constantly,

He says, well, you know, you agree that you were going to diminish the cell of arms to Taiwan, but the United States has mentioned also that the cell of arms to Taiwan is commensurate with the threat that Taiwan is receiving. And as anyone can attest to nowadays is that the threat level of Taiwan being, you know, threat is very, very high. So for us to acquire necessary defensive weapons is more than justified. So again, we appreciate the fact that the United States is, you know, based on the TRA, is selling arms to Taiwan and also helping Taiwan know to defend itself better. Again, it is our responsibility and we'll do so. We appreciate our friends helping us do that better, and we're more than happy to be working

with our friends and allies. So I recently had Peter Mattis, who runs the Jamestown Foundation on the show, and we talked a lot about one of his areas of particular expertise, the United Front work department. So just, again, for the benefit of our audience who might not know, they can watch that episode, but this is a whole kind of department or ministry committed to subverting civil society, both within and other places, like, for example, Taiwan or the United States, and is very active, incredibly well-funded, one of the highest funded in sort of ministries or departments. China. What can America learn from how Taiwan has been dealing with us? You mentioned

asymmetrical warfare. This is one of their tools of asymmetrical warfare, probably maybe even the most potent one. We could debate that. What can America learn about those United Front tactics and how they affect Taiwan? Well, you know, as I mentioned, PRC spends a lot of money on defense or military, you know, procurement, etc. It has one of the largest armies in the world. Certainly the largest Navy in the world. They have, you know, the lobby is so large that obviously goes beyond the need for territorial defense. And PRC has engaged in the largest peacetime military procurement and strengthening

while their borders are not under threat. So the biggest threat comes from people of proclotho of China militarily, but, The thing is the PRC spends more money on internal control than on its military, so including, you know, the United Front. And the United Front, what it does is basically a political warfare, a propaganda, or trying to dissuade you through different means to acknowledge how the world looks according to their view, you know, for example. And then you have TikTok, you know, which, again, I'm very happy that United States has arranged some, you know, made some arrangement. to prevent the effect of Chinese TikTok being done on the United States. Because TikTok, I've said, it's a cyber fentanyl. You know, TikTok is, you know, videos, you know, they're harmless, they're funny.

But inside of all that, they spread disinformation in those, you know, airtime, which, you know, people very easily swallows because it's, you know, irrelevant, it's funny. And then you start swallowing. But in the midst of that, they start putting these messages to try to form your view of according to theirs. And again, through media, through a talk show and through infiltration of government officials or, you know, key people in government and society, they try to transform the mentality of, for example, they've been trying to nurture this notion that United States is an unreliable partner. And they have this messaging on the Internet, on airwaves, et cetera.

The United States will not be there to help you when things get bad because they only want to earn money from you. They're capitalists, all they care about money, et cetera. And they continuously try to brainwash us that this is the case. And that they're the good guys. You know, you were with them, all things were really good. But you have to be subjected to us. And you believe, like, the people in Hong Kong, well, people in Hong Kong are not happy,

although they try to say through TikTok, they hope Hong Kong is great. No, the Uyghurs are happy, everything is good. And even that China is a democracy. Like, who in the world thinks China's democracy? But that's the way they're trying to portray themselves as B, which is a fictitious world that they're trying to have a swallow. which is not true.

Right. I mean, you mentioned talk shows and influencers, all sorts of influencers, right? That's a big thing today. And not only Chinese, but they use foreigners to try to do that so that, oh, the words coming from a foreigner must be true and try to say, well, this is, he's one of us, so what he said must be true. And that's part of the messaging, the false messaging, they're trying to reach to the audience outside of China.

Yeah, and I'm just thinking, and that's a very powerful vector. It is. It is. But it's only one of the United Front. Oh, yeah. There's so many more. Yeah, there are so many. Mr. Ambassador, you mentioned that Taiwan, U.S. trade is on the rise.

CCP, U.S. trade is on the decline. Where are these areas of growth? And I'll add a caveat to that, clearly you've invested a huge amount of money in TSM in Arizona and building these TOT chip plants in the United States. And how does that explain to me how that factors into this? I mean, the thriving and ever-growing trade relationship between Tau and United States is happening probably because of the coupling from China, but also of the common values that we have in terms of investment.

in terms of what we do together. I mentioned the AI development. We want to make sure that the AI realm, which is a new industrial revolution is happening all around us and AI will be part of our lives, that make sure that this AI is a AI that works for good, that helps the human beings and not restrict human behavior or human, you know. So we want to make sure that we maintain this supremacy and AI and AI and working together in the United States.

So in that sense, Taiwanese investments, the United States has continued to grow, mainly in technology, semiconductors. Mainly you mentioned the TSMC. They're building six VAPs in Phoenix to packaging and one research center. And it's a bustling, you go to Phoenix, you see this growth, you know, it was just empty land.

It's quite unbelievable. Yeah, I saw it recently. And it's really encouraging. to see what the fruit of the labor between Taiwanese and American workforce to do that. But also in January and February of this year, we signed a memorandum on investments between Taiwan, United States. Also, an agreement on reciprocal trade, which basically, after 10 months of negotiations, United States and Taiwan will reach an agreement that basically deals with most of the details

on bilateral trade. Some of the items that for many, many years, even decades, we're not able to solve, will be done in that and will have a set tariff, like the ones with Japan and others. But that brings us Taiwanese pledge that we will be investing $250 billion from Taiwanese companies into the United States in the places. and the items that Taiwanese companies see its feet. Also, the government of Taiwan will make available $250 billion worth of credit guarantees to our companies who want to invest in manufacturing in the United States.

So all that is happening, and the upcoming USA Select, which is happening in early May, we will have, as the previous year, is probably one of the largest foreign delegation coming to the US Select USA. and very possibly will have some good news to announce back then. I'll leave it to the delegation to make the announcements. But at the same time, there's one piece of puzzle still left

that will encourage further interaction and investment to the United States, and that's the avoidance of double taxation bill that passed the House of Representatives last year 423 to 1, and now it's in the Senate pending approval. that the Senate will approve that because we're the only major trading partner with the United States that still does not enjoy avoidance of double taxation. Means that because of that, Taiwanese companies, the United States have to pay double taxes, their employees have to pay double taxes to US and Taiwanese agencies.

And likewise, American companies going to Taiwan have to do the same, but not so in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, etc. So it is unjustified or unjustified. and we hope that this will remediate. And with the passage of ADTA, you can certainly see more encouragement for Taiwanese companies to be in the United States. So hopefully that will be able to accomplish in the very short future. Hmm. Well, Mr. Ambassador, a quick final thought as we finish? No. You know, U.S. time relations, we've gone through, again,

In 1979, diplomatic relations ended, and it was a low point of our relations, but luckily, because of Congress' passage of Taiwan Relations Act, it gave us a legal basis to how to interact with each other. And since then, actually, our relations have grown steadily and bustling, and now we say that it's a rock-solid partnership between Taiwan and United States. So we are all in to make United States objective of remanufacturing or having manufacturing renaissance in the United States, it fits our purpose to do so and we work very closely of United States in making this a reality of manufacturing technology and also fits Taiwan

strategy to be here, expanding our footprint of manufacturing United States, it fits the purposes. But at the same time highlighting the achievements and the celebration of democracy of 250th anniversary of the United States as a democracy, and so as Taiwan's 30th anniversary of the President election. So many things that are value, likewise in terms of technology, in terms of values, in terms of what we want to do together. And I think this is one of the highlights, one of the best moments between Taiwan and U.S. relations.

Well, Ambassador Alexander Yu, it's such a pleasure to have had you on. Thank you, Yao. Thank you for having me. Thank you all for joining Ambassador Alexander Yu of Taiwan and me on this episode of American Thought Leaders. I'm your host, Janja Keleck.