Hoover Institution (Stanford, CA) – Taiwan’s representative to the United States, Alexander Tah-ray Yui, advocated for continued and enhanced US support as Taiwan continues to grapple with pressure from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), during a comprehensive talk at the Hoover Institution on February 28.
Invited by the Hoover Project on Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific Region, Yui has led Taiwan’s Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington, DC, since December 2023. He served as Taiwan’s vice minister of foreign affairs from 2021 to 2023 and represented Taiwanese interests at the European Union before assuming his current post in Washington.
In the discussion, Yui detailed his concern over the PRC’s unwavering objective to bring Taiwan into its fold, a strategy he likened to “slow cooking the frog,” underscoring that Beijing's long-term goals have not changed and will not change despite shifts in diplomatic tactics.
He cited on-again-off-again trade measures, such as the PRC’s ban on Taiwanese pineapple imports in 2021. The PRC claimed the ban was for biosecurity concerns, but Taiwanese officials said it was merely another form of economic coercion.
He warned that recent Chinese attempts to display a friendlier front globally, described as a pivot from “wolf warrior diplomacy” to more subtle, perhaps charming approaches, are not to be trusted.
“Don’t be a fool, they’re still the same people, they’re just changing their tactics,” he said, referring to actions from cyberattacks to the recent incident of a Chinese-crewed ship allegedly cutting an undersea internet cable near Taiwan’s Penghu Islands archipelago.
He also told attendees that the PRC doesn’t have a formal mechanism to communicate with Taiwanese president Lai Ching-te, because they do not recognize his party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Yui said that the PRC will communicate with the Kuomintang (KMT) party when it is in power, but no one else. The situation means many diplomatic issues are communicated between the two sides only through contacts in each nation’s police or coast guard services.
The ambassador reflected on the evolution of Taiwan-US relations since the cessation of formal diplomatic ties in 1979, when the US switched its recognition of China to the PRC, —a period that has seen a major effort to rebuild connections. That journey went from clandestine meetings in cafes in the 1980s to more open interactions, although certain limitations still exist. The Taiwan Relations Act, passed in 1979, codified the US relationship to the island, affording it some diplomatic and economic status despite the earlier decision to recognize the PRC.
“There’s still some ceilings we have to overcome,” he noted, expressing hope for future progress and less-constrained dialogue.
Yui's speech also pointed to Taiwan's essential role in sectors like technology, including AI, labeling Taiwan and the US as indispensable collaborators. He advocated for Taiwan’s inclusion in international organizations, suggesting that Taiwan's achievements, such as outperforming G20 member South Korea in terms of GDP per person, merit consideration to be included in that body, but he added that Taiwan presents itself on the global stage with a measure of humility.
Warning against complacency, Yui stressed the need for economic and security bonds to not only continue but strengthen between the US and Taiwan. The geostrategic atmosphere—particularly with activities such as increased drills by China’s People’s Liberation Army around Taiwan following significant visits like that of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in 2022—highlights the fraught nature of Taiwan’s security.
He reminded attendees that trade with Taiwan, in semiconductors, machinery, appliances and a raft of other products, supports up to 360,000 US jobs.
Yui remarked candidly that Taiwan is a security partner unlike many the US has cultivated in recent decades because of its relative self-sufficiency, including the ability to support its own growing military and domestic defense industry.
“We are an asset, not a liability,” he said.
Yui’s speech at Hoover encapsulated the delicate balance Taiwan aims to maintain: asserting its autonomy and significance to both the global economy and the world’s democracies while nurturing crucial alliances, particularly with the United States, to counteract Beijing's persistent overtures and threats.
“We’re determined to maintain our way of life,” Yui said. “The fact that we in Taiwan are having elections, free elections, where people are able to speak their minds, that is something that [PRC] citizens don’t have. It’s a threat to the [Chinese Communist Party’s] legitimacy in mainland China.”
