Taiwan Is Not Ukraine. Its Fate Is Also Not Hopeless

US President Donald Trump's U-turn on Kyiv has prompted concern of abandonment in the event of a Chinese invasion. But Taipei is fighting back.

- Yip Wai Yee

TAIPEI — There is a deep sense of unease in Taiwan.

"Today Ukraine, Tomorrow Taiwan" slogans have proliferated on Taiwanese social media.

As the world watched US President Donald Trump's stunning blow-up with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, many Taiwanese are now asking if Washington remains a reliable security partner.

His U-turn on Kyiv — and an alarming pivot towards Moscow — have prompted concern that the island would be similarly abandoned in the event of a Chinese invasion.

Taiwan faces a constant threat from Beijing, which claims the self-ruled democracy as its own and has in recent years ratcheted up military, diplomatic and economic pressure on the island.

Washington supplies Taiwan with weapons and its support is crucial to repelling any Chinese attack. But worries that the US may ultimately leave it hanging are growing.

"Taiwan cannot take previous US bipartisan support for its defence for granted," said Mr Eric Chan, a military expert and senior non-resident fellow at the Global Taiwan Institute, a Washington-based think-tank.

"Trump has demonstrated he is willing to overturn decades of US bipartisan foreign policy understanding with respect to America's place in the world, as well as the values that America will defend," he told The Straits Times.

At the same time, there are fears that Mr Trump's transactional foreign policy may further embolden China to push its territorial claim on the island. Taiwanese are reading with concern Mr Trump's rapprochement with Russia and his desire to extract minerals from Ukraine.

Despite such developments casting a pall over the island, the situation is not hopeless for Taiwan. For one thing, the comparison with Ukraine is wrong-footed.