Taiwan seeks to keep China threat front of mind in MAGA world

DORAL, Fla. — Taiwan’s representative to the U.S. is trying to keep China front of mind in MAGA foreign policy, sounding warnings that Beijing’s “threat is active” at the Heritage Foundation’s Miami Security Forum this week. 

America’s intelligence agencies recently assessed that Beijing is not planning a military invasion in 2027. Ambassador Alexander Tah-Ray Yui said that did not mean the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was not increasing its capabilities to threaten the island by force. 

“The threat is active. It’s real. And Taiwan will do all it can, to have the best deterrence possible,” Yui told The Hill this week, speaking on the sidelines of the Heritage Foundation’s inaugural national security conference at President Trump’s golf resort near Miami. 

The 2027 deadline was first put forward in 2021 by an American admiral who noted that Chinese President Xi Jinping might take action in the centennial year of the People’s Liberation Army. 

The conference largely focused on two major pillars of Trump’s security strategy in the Western Hemisphere, combating drug cartels and boxing out China — a somewhat discordant pair of themes as Trump’s war on Iran focuses America’s military on the Middle East.  

Part of China’s ambitions in Latin America is to cut off Taiwan from any official diplomatic ties in the region. And Yui’s presence at the conference is aimed at promoting Taiwan as a reliable partner for the attending Latin American officials.

Strait of Hormuz crisis impacts Taiwan

Yui said the energy crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, triggered by Trump’s war against Iran, underscores the island’s vulnerability. 

A third of Taiwan’s natural gas imports come from Qatar and the country’s state-owned oil supplier said 39.4 percent of its oil imports in 2025 came from the Middle East, although this is a decrease from 45 percent in 2022. 

“We will be trying to diversify our source of where we get our energy, again part of the resiliency issue,” Yui said, in particular focusing on more natural gas deliveries from the U.S.

Yui would not comment on whether Taiwan could answer Trump’s call for countries to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, but offered Taipei’s commitment to maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait — the 100-mile-wide maritime passage shared with China through which an estimated one-fifth of the global trade transits.

“That itself is a contribution,” he said. “In that case, for example, the U.S. analyzes that the area is safer so they can concentrate on other things. There’s not much I can say about this.”

Chinese aggression in the strait and against Taiwan is viewed as an existential risk to U.S. national security, with Taiwan manufacturing 90 percent of the semiconductor chips relied on globally for everything from cell phones to high-tech military equipment.

Delays in military equipment

Yui was also coy about the status of a not-yet-finalized $14 billion U.S. arms sale package to Taiwan. 

Taiwan’s Defense Minister Wellington Koo said Tuesday that he believed the U.S. internal review process for the sale is proceeding on schedule. But Reuters reported that Trump would likely only greenlight the sale after he meets with Xi in Beijing. That trip, which was expected for the first week of April, was postponed because of the war in Iran. 

Yui further said he couldn’t anticipate how a $200 billion funding request from the White House to supplement the war in Iran could impact deliveries of Taiwan’s purchased weapons. 

“Whatever has been ordered and purchased, the delivery dates are being planned — to be delivered as timely as possible,” he said.

Yui said Taiwan wants to “minimize” as many obstacles that are causing delays for arm shipments to the country — either because of manufacturing issues or weapons heading to Ukraine first. 

In November 2024, Taiwan’s former president Tsai Ing-wen said weapons deliveries should be prioritized for Ukraine, because, “We [Taiwan] still have time.”

Asked if that is still the case, Yui said that Taiwan is actively engaging with the U.S. government and industries to facilitate timely deliveries. 

“There has been some delays in terms of delivery of some of the purchases that have been made, some during President Trump’s first term that still has not been delivered, but that has many causes,” he said, citing technical or manufacturing issues. 

“We would like to minimize as much as these obstacles as possible, so that these armaments can be delivered as soon as possible.”

‘Hopeful time’ for relations in Latin America

Yui’s attendance at the Heritage Foundation conference underscored the conservative think-tank’s anti-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) theme of the two-day forum. 

“We want them to be part of the conversation,” Heritage President Kevin Roberts told The Hill of Yui’s invitation. 

“We’re very proud to say that it’s anti-CCP,” he added about the makeup of the conference.

Yui said it’s a “more positive and hopeful time” for Taiwan to establish, or reestablish ties, with countries in central and South America who are confronting the risks of partnering with China, either trapped in coercive infrastructure projects or facing threats from the Trump administration to cut ties. 

Early in his second term, Trump threatened to take over the Panama Canal because of what he alleged were Chinese threats to U.S. national security interests. Trump has imposed visa bans on Chilean officials over an infrastructure investment with China and warned Peru it would lose its sovereignty to Beijing if it goes ahead with a port project. 

Taiwan holds official diplomatic ties with seven countries in Latin America as Beijing tries to peel off Taipei’s allies. Nicaragua severed ties with Taiwan in 2021 in favor of China, and Honduras did so in 2023. 

But Honduras’s newly-elected President Nasry Asfura — a close Trump ally — is reviewing the country’s bilateral ties with China, with mass anger in the country against Beijing for failing to boost trade as promised. 

“So many countries are disappointed [of their relations with Beijing], and Honduras obviously is one of them,” Yui said.  

“We just hope that Honduras will make the right decision. We’re open to embrace Honduras again.”

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