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Unprecedented: Trump Says He Will Call President Lai |
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President Donald Trump of the United States plans to call President Lai Ching-te signaling compensation. An expert analyzes three possible trajectories for the Taiwan Strait. |
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Three Possible Scenarios for a Trump–Lai Phone Call
President Donald Trump of the United States publicly confirmed to the media that he plans to hold a direct phone call with President Lai Ching-te. If this indeed takes place, then it would mark the first direct communication between the leaders of the United States and Taiwan since 1979, when Washington shifted diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing. This is the historical significance behind Mr. Trump’s statement.
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Mr. Trump’s remarks on Taiwan reflect a shift in context, raising concerns that Taiwan may become a bargaining chip in U.S.-China dealings. |
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Trump's "Status Quo Theory" as Taiwan's Chronic Poison
After concluding his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, President Donald Trump of the United States first spoke with reporters aboard Air Force One and later gave an exclusive interview to Fox News anchor Bret Baier, providing the summit with its true political footnote: The United States has not publicly abandoned Taiwan, yet it is quietly shifting the language surrounding Taiwan’s security.
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In his May 20 speech, President Lai downplayed two key terms: “Taiwan independence” and “Republic of China.” |
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The Missing Keywords in President Lai’s Second Anniversary Speech
President Donald Trump of the United States recently stated that he “does not want to see anyone move toward Taiwan independence,” and even said he does not want to fight a war over it. This blunt warning undoubtedly has had a powerful “course-correction” effect on the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) long-standing cross-strait narrative.
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President Lai faced an impeachment motion, making the first presidential impeachment case in R.O.C. constitutional history. |
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May 16:
President Donald Trump of the United States made clear on Taiwan that he does not want anyone moving towards independence. President Lai Ching-te first explained at a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) event that “Taiwan independence” has two meanings: Taiwan does not belong to the People’s Republic of China, and the Republic of China and P.R.C. are not subordinate to each other. Later, after hearing a report from the national security team, he revised his statement on Facebook, saying that he is defending the R.O.C. status quo and that there is no “Taiwan independence” problem. |
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May 19:
The Legislative Yuan voted on the impeachment motion against President Lai. With both the Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) casting votes in favor, the final tally was 56 votes in favor and 50 against. This did not reach the two-thirds threshold, but it still set a precedent as the first impeachment motion against a president in R.O.C. constitutional history. |
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May 20:
In his speech making two years in office, President Lai stated that maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and preventing external forces from changing the status quo are Taiwan’s national strategic goals. He emphasized that Taiwan is a responsible member of the international community, not a destabilizing actor; he expressed willingness to engage in healthy and orderly exchanges with China under the principles of equality and dignity but firmly rejected “unification packaged as peace” as a form of political warfare. |
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May 20:
Breaking with precedent since the United States severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1979, President Trump declared he would speak with President Lai before making decisions on arms sales to Taiwan. Acting U.S. Navy Secretary Hung Cao confirmed at a Senate hearing that, due to the war with Iran, the U.S. is suspending a $14 billion arms sale package to Taiwan. |
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May 20:
The Anti-Fraud Command Center of the Executive Yuan stated yesterday that Meta’s social media platforms are the primary channels used by fraud rings. It demanded immediate proactive changes to algorithms and detection systems to block repetitive scam posts at the source, warning that otherwise legislation will impose heavy penalties. Meta’s platforms include Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp. |
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May 21:
AMD announced it will invest over $10 billion to expand strategic cooperation with Taiwan’s supply chain, naming ASE, Powertech, Unimicron, Wistron, and Wiwynn as deep collaboration partners. Observers interpret this as AMD replicating the models of NVIDIA and Google, tightly binding itself to Taiwan’s supply chain to secure production capacity. |
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May 21:
Internal turmoil at the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation has intensified. Former President Ma’s wife Chow Mei-ching and elder sister Ma Yi-nan issued a written statement hoping that Ma would truly retire and hand all foundation affairs over to the board of directors. The statement indirectly confirmed Ma has health issues. However, Ma personally refused to relinquish control of the foundations’ affairs and insisted on pursuing accountability regarding alleged embezzlement by former executive directors. |
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May 22:
According to a Forbes’ real-time billionaire rankings, Chairman Chen Taiming of Yageo, with a net worth of $15.6 billion, surpassed Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn) founder Terry Gou’s $15 billion to become Taiwan’s new richest person. With surging demand for AI servers and high-end GPUs, Yageo’s stock price has risen by 125 percent this year. |
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