TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Defense officials from the US and Taiwan reportedly held a secret meeting in Alaska last week amid White House hopes of China trade talks.
The Financial Times reported on Friday that Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Jed Royal met with then National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉). A US official said the choice of Alaska was a deliberate move to reduce exposure of the meeting, while the makeup of the US delegation reflected scheduling limitations.
Planned meetings between senior US and Taiwanese officials in Washington in recent months were canceled, reportedly in part because President Trump was concerned such exchanges might affect a potential bilateral summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Amanda Hsiao, China director at Eurasia Group, told the Financial Times that the Alaska meeting suggested: “The Trump administration may be trying to thread the needle between assuring Taiwan and keeping the possibility of a trade deal and summit with China alive.”
Royal is currently serving in an acting capacity, as the Trump administration awaits Senate confirmation of its nominee, John Noh. The Taiwanese government recently promoted Hsu to advise National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), who is seen as a strong contender for the post of Taiwan’s representative to the US.
Heino Klinck, who served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia in Trump’s first term, argued that frequent high-level meetings with Taiwan are vital to US national interests. “When juxtaposed with the triumvirate of tyranny (China, Russia, and North Korea) reviewing a military parade in Tiananmen Square, the justification for such US-Taiwan engagements is clear,” Klinck said.
Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific Program at the German Marshall Fund, explained, “The downgrading of US-Taiwan defense talks provides further evidence that Trump likely instructed his cabinet officials not to do anything that would undermine negotiations with China, which are aimed at securing a trade deal and a summit with Xi Jinping.”
Taiwanese officials and analysts attributed the lower-profile Alaska meeting to an attempt to balance the need for Taiwan to hold timely discussions to submit a special defense budget to the Legislative Yuan with the fact that US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy Elbridge A. Colby is still finalizing the National Defense Strategy.
Yang Kuang-shun, co-founder of the Taiwan Watch, said that the US policy community continues to speculate on the possibility of Trump pursuing a "grand bargain with China.” He added that Trump had previously delayed signing a major F-16 fighter jet sale until after finalizing trade negotiations with Beijing in 2019, suggesting he might prioritize talks with China over arms sales to Taiwan.
