Could Trump Make Taiwan the 51st State?
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It seems like everything that happened with Trump and Zelensky in Ukraine has got everyone really talking and worried about, oh, what's going to happen to Taiwan? Is this is the U.S. under Trump going to abandon Taiwan to China? Is it going to be some kind of transactional relationship? And you've written a great piece in the Taipei Times. I

And I'm really curious about the response to that. But I just want to get to the most controversial thing that you came up with in there is when you suggested that one of the solutions could be Taiwan becomes a U.S. state.

Why not? I mean, President Trump has proposed Canada, you know, Greenland, even the glorious area of Gaza. You know, I mean, I think I think actually this is a preliminary framework to get us all softened up to the idea that the United States could expand. And his real intent is to just take over Taiwan. The American empire sun will never set. How British?

How is that playing in Taiwan? Well, actually, it's kind of interesting. So before I wrote my article, I did some research on opinion polls about whether Taiwanese want to become a part of China or part of the United States. There was a poll done in 2018 on that topic, and I think it was like 75 percent of the people preferred to be under the

of the United States, imperial United States. And the other, it was like 15, 20% was interested in China and the other ones were undecided or didn't want to respond. I mean, that's a little biased of a survey. Is there another option? Yeah, like independent Taiwan or status quo. Right. I feel like that probably would be more popular.

popular. Right. No, no. I mean, most people here, I mean, obviously the people here want status quo, which is their own independent country. I mean, that's, that's standard. That's, that's been going on for at least, you know, a decade where most of the people here want status quo or status quo moving towards independence or independence, you know, formal de jure independence. So yeah, some people got a little upset about the fact that, you know, I was

I was a researcher working at a

Taiwan's defense think tank and how dare I suggest that Taiwan loses independence and become part of the United States. That was pretty funny. Obviously, I wasn't suggesting that any of these solutions would occur in the future. I was just laying out the possibilities. And that's what I think on the other side of the Taiwan Strait, people went a little crazy.

The mainland Chinese side. Well, I want to ask about the state thing because – so you're saying that if the only two choices were Taiwan is under Chinese rule or under American rule, that there is a preference for American rule but only in that scenario?

Well, a lot of people here would prefer to, for example, in the economic dimension, they would prefer to do more business with the United States. So it's not just like the binary part, either, you know, the worst case or the best case. Other polling has shown that they do want to get closer to the United States.

And, you know, some of the other options I presented in my article cover that where Taiwan can maintain its independence. And then there's several options about the United States becoming closer in terms of security and defense without losing its independence. I know you mentioned things like Compact Free Association or something similar to Guam.

well so guam is a u.s territory no no the the the compacts of free association palau for example is an independent country uh but it's securing defense uh is the responsibility of the united states so palau is a voting member in the u.n uh it has all the things that uh aspects that an independent country has but it's uh securing defense is the responsibility of the united states

So that's an example where Taiwan could be maintaining its independence, but have the U.S. take care of its security. Another example is, you know, going down a notch is the Mutual Defense Treaty, which was, you know,

occurred from 1955 to 1979, where the United States and Taiwan had signed a mutual defense treaty, much like we have with Japan or South Korea currently. So that's another option. I mean, all the options we're talking about now is Taiwan maintains its independence. Well, I think at the heart of the issue is what's come up, what's been made very apparent is people and countries will talk about human rights and democracy.

And like say that's what their values are. When push comes to shove, it's interests that actually matter. And so it seems like the criticism of Trump is that he's trying to make things transactional. But maybe that is actually just the reality of international politics. And so the goal is to find what the interests of the United States are in Taiwan and keeping it free from Chinese rule.

Well, I wouldn't say that President Trump is 100% transactional.

I mean, I think that there are certain things that he cares about that are not necessarily apparently transactional. For example, his support for Israel. I mean, it wouldn't make sense for the United States to support Israel when there's, you know, 20 some odd Arab countries who most of them don't have friendly relations with Israel, and they have lots of oil, lots of gas. Economically, it doesn't make sense.

But on the other hand, he seems to be pro-Israel. So I'm not sure that the transactional part is 100% in his mind. I think there are some principles that he goes by above and beyond the transactional. I mean, you've seen pictures of him or videos of him with different interest groups, and he's very friendly with them. And I don't think everything he does is transactional.

I mean, we do the United States does have a stake in Israel that is transactional. I'm not saying this is the only reason, but like Israel has probably behind the United States is the second biggest technological innovator in the world. So a tremendous amount of great technology, including probably military technology that I don't know about, is coming out of Israel. So so isn't it? It is of great value to the United States. And I think even

even a president who does not care about Israel as a state or Israel as a holy land or Israel as whatever independent country might still see the value of maintaining that. And so what we've seen is across multiple presidencies with different views, the U.S. has still been a strong ally of Israel.

Well, I mean, also there's a strong lobbying support for Israel, which Taiwan does not have in the United States.

Correct. I mean, like FAPA and, you know, just several other Taiwanese groups in the United States, they do try to influence opinion. And actually, interestingly enough, last year when the Congress approved the funding for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan,

they had to make each one of those a separate vote in Congress. And actually, Taiwan got more votes than Israel did in terms of support from Congress. So again, it's kind of interesting, this dynamic. A lot can be said about Israel and Taiwan, but I think

We can we could probably shift back to Taiwan and its relationship with the United States and how how it affects the calculus that the communist China might see in the actions that I recommended.

Thank you for watching. A link to G-Man's recent article is below. And this was just one short highlight from our hour-long podcast. The full interview is available exclusively on our website, ChinaUncensored.tv. And when you subscribe to our website, you'll also get premium China Uncensored episodes, live streams, and a community chat with me, Shelley, Matt, and hundreds of subscribers. Most importantly, you'll be supporting content you love. Check it out. Just click right here.