In the wake of various disturbing remarks about Beijing and Taipei by the U.S. president—and a Trump-instigated delay in weapons sales to the Republic of China—the ROC’s ambassador to the United States, Alexander Tah-ray Yui, has been explaining to Americans why Taiwan is worth not abandoning.
Yui is not an ambassador per se, since the U.S. maintains the fiction that its diplomatic relations with the ROC are not of the formal and real kind that the United States has with so many other countries, including totalitarian aggressors like the People’s Republic of China. Yui merely heads the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington, a “de facto” embassy.
Resistance is not futile
Politico reports that especially since the Trump-Xi summit in Beijing last month, “Yui has been in frequent rotation on cable news shows and at Washington think tanks, making the case that U.S. arms sales to Taiwan are a smart investment” (March 6, 2026).
Trump has shown little interest in abiding by precedent when it comes to Taiwan. By discussing arms sales to Taiwan with Xi, Trump bucked decades of U.S. policy toward the island. He did so again when he suggested he’d call up Taiwan’s president to discuss the matter; U.S. and Taiwanese leaders have not spoken since the United States formally recognized Beijing in 1979. If the call does happen, perhaps there is some upside for Taiwan from Trump’s unorthodox approach.
“With President Trump, anything is possible. He’s a president that acts outside the box,” Yui said. “If there’s a call, it would be a big deal. But it’s thoroughly reasonable if you consider that Taiwan is a self-governing republic.”
In his interview with Politico, Yui “likened Beijing’s leadership to notoriously aggressive aliens from Star Trek: ‘The Borg are like the Chinese Communist Party. All they say is ‘resistance is futile.’ ”
When asked about Trump’s statement that he regards a pending $14 billion arms sale to the ROC as a “negotiating chip” that he can use with Red China, Yui makes the best of things.
“I don’t feel any concern that we’re being sort of traded off to the Chinese in any way. There’s lots of things going on between the United States and Taiwan, not only the security aspect, but also on trade, investment, science and education. Lots of things are going on that don’t show any diminishing reduction or lessening of U.S. attention or concern.
“President Trump has been the president who has sold the most weapons to Taiwan so far. During his first term, he sold Taiwan around $18 billion worth of weapons, and late last year, he announced an $11 billion arms sale. We will respect the tempo at which they announce [the $14 billion sale].
“We have relayed to the U.S. side that we need those arms purchases in the face of mounting aggression by mainland China…. The purchase has to do with improving our self-defense capabilities, especially asymmetric warfare preparations, defense against Chinese missiles and better communications.
“The Chinese side will always want the sales not to happen. Their basic line is ‘don’t sell arms to Taiwan.’ But I want to stress that U.S. arms sales to Taiwan are commensurate to the threat level that we are facing. So as the threat level is increasing, the United States will sell us more arms as needed.”
So maybe Trump will hear words like these on a cable news show, nod, and say, “Yes, that’s right, we will sell more arms to Taiwan as needed.”
