Name: Taiwan’s president touts stronger economic ties with US | DW News
Uploaded: 2026-02-03T17:20:00.000Z
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Taiwan's President Lai Ching Te has announced plans to deepen economic ties with the United States.

It's a move he says will strengthen economic resilience and security for the island.

The announcement comes as the US and Taiwan finalize a new trade agreement that would reduce tariffs on Taiwanese goods in exchange for up to $250 billion in investment in America's technology sector.

And the deal has yet to be approved by Taiwan's parliament.

And for more, we're now joined by DW correspondent Rick Lared in Taipei.

Rick, what does this mean for US Taiwanese relations in practice?

Well, Taiwan's relationship with the US is very important.

That's the economic and also a security partner incredibly important for Taiwan.

And today at the presidential office, Taiwan's President, President has been putting these two things together.

It's been saying that through working together economically, cooperating during this time of geopolitical, geopolitical instability, the US and Taiwan can grow stronger.

He said that they'll be cooperating in some of those critical areas like AI, the chip sector and drones.

And he said that, you know, building resilient supply chains, democratic supply chains is key to both Taiwan and, and

there was also talk from officials here of those rare earth supplies and whether Taiwan and the US could work together on securing that critical, those critical rare earth minerals which you know, we use in all everyday tech.

And a key element of these agreements involves shifting part of semiconductor production away from Taiwan and investing in new plants in the US Is Taiwan giving up one of its most critical strategic assets?

Well, of course Taiwan semiconductor industry is really important for the country.

Most of the most sophisticated chips are made here in Taiwan and it's important both a big part of the, of the country's economy but also for its security.

The fact that all of these really crucial chips and that Taiwan is so integrated in the technology supply chain is one of the things that many people think keeps Taiwan safe.

So there has been some pushback particularly by political parties, by opposition parties against this plan to be moving, developing more Production chip fab TSMC Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

Fabs outside of Taiwan But Taiwan's president today and his office throughout these negotiations be saying it's not about moving stuff out of Taiwan, it's about growing the company as a whole and building fabs outside of Taiwan.

Whilst R and D and the most sophisticated, the cutting edge technology will remain protected and will remain here in Taiwan.

government Strategic Defense Review which is a document outlining key U.S. interests around the world.

Are there fears on the island that U.S. support for Taiwan isn't certain?

Well, like everywhere else in the world, people in Taiwan have been watching Trump's presidency, the, the spheres of influence that he's been following, the different approach to geopolitics that he's taken.

But the US has long had a policy of what's called strategic ambiguity on Taiwan.

It's never really said how exactly it sees its relations with Taiwan, how it wants to help Taiwan in the event of an attack by China.

So Taiwan has been quite used to, you know, reading between the lines on this sort of thing.

And for many people here, you know, you know, actions speak louder than words.

Money talks and the fact that the US passed a record spending a weapons package for Taiwan and just, just over a month ago, 11 billion USD.

And again the fact that they've been able to move forward with this tariff deal, closer cooperation, that speaks really highly to people here in Taiwan.

Meanwhile, there have been reports of low level talks between the taiw Chinese opposition and the Chinese Communist Party.

Yeah, in fact, there's a delegation from the Kuomintang, the opposition party, have visiting China this week.

We don't know whether they're going to be meeting with the Chinese Communist Party, but

that sort of shows you the very fractious, very divided politics here in Taiwan over how exactly Taiwan should be treating that China question.

The ruling party, the government here in Taipei, says, you know, that there should be strength through deterrence, that Taiwan needs to have strong relations with the us, it needs to buy more weapons, it needs to spend more on defense to deter China.

Whilst others, like the opposition party, say that dialogue is key and that they don't see a problem with being, you know, going communicating with China.

This morning, the president here said that he also has no problem speaking with China, but

DW's East Asia correspondent, Rick Glaud from Taipei.