Why did Trump throw Taiwan under the bus?

Things could have been very different. Since the distant days of the first Trump presidency, Taiwanese tech companies have been shifting production from China to Taiwan due to US tariffs and tech controls aimed at China. For the US, that strategy has borne some fruit.

Most countries tend to trade the most with their close neighbours. But in February, for the first time in over two decades, Taiwan’s top export destination for goods was not China and Hong Kong, but America, thousands of miles across the Pacific. It was a tremendous victory for America on the frontline of the US-China rivalry.

Instead, the arrival of that milestone was greeted with trepidation in Taipei. The recent announcement of tariffs on Canada showed that Trump was willing to throw a close ally of many decades under the bus. His comments from the campaign trail about Taiwan stealing the US chip industry and free-riding on America’s security umbrella suggested he was unlikely to be more amical to Taiwan.