OPINION:
Beijing is determined to dominate the strategic technologies that will define the 21st century. Fortunately, Taiwan’s economic partnership with the United States ensures they remain in the hands of the free world.
Semiconductors, artificial intelligence, smart defense systems and other advanced technologies are becoming increasingly foundational to the global economy. Whether they remain responsibly governed by open societies or manipulated by authoritarian control is a pivotal contest for the future character of world affairs.
The United States and Taiwan engaged in over $1 trillion in trade in 2025, according to the Taiwan Ministry of Economic Affairs. This means Taiwan has become America’s fourth-largest trading partner, a relationship that spans semiconductors, agriculture, energy, defense technology, and much else.
The two countries cooperated in writing the trade rules and bolstering the investment deals that made this possible. That scaffolding is what allows the secure movement of advanced technologies between open economies, independent of supply chains vulnerable to communist coercion.
The dynamism of today’s semiconductor industry demonstrates the immense value of U.S.-Taiwan cooperation. Taiwan’s chip industry consists not of one company but a web of specialized firms in design, testing, packaging and fabrication, a comprehensive ecosystem that the Hoover Institution’s Kharis Templeman has called one of the most valuable economic partnerships the United States has anywhere in the world. That ecosystem is evolving rapidly.
TSMC is ramping up production of advanced computer chips, including at its new campus in Arizona, to meet the rapidly growing demand by American entrepreneurs, businesses, research institutions and consumers, powering America’s buildout of artificial intelligence. The company has invested $165 billion in U.S. facilities, the largest foreign direct investment in American history, spread across new fabrication plants that are already creating jobs and training a new generation of homegrown engineers.
What makes this partnership strategically significant is not just its scale but its structure. Taiwan’s government answers to its own voters in regular and free elections. This is why Taiwan consistently ranks as one of the best economies in the world for ease of doing business, according to the Heritage Foundation. In industries where long-term trust, enforceable contracts and transparent legal systems are essential, that distinction is foundational and indispensable.
Washington’s actions reflect that understanding. The House China Select Committee’s “Ten More for Taiwan” report in December called for finalizing a much-needed double-taxation relief agreement between our two countries and building coordinated capacity to counter Chinese economic coercion. That agreement, the United States-Taiwan Expedited Double-Tax Relief Act, passed the House by a vote 423 to 1, a margin of bipartisan consensus rarely achieved on almost any other issue. Its enactment would meaningfully strengthen cross-border investment flows between our two economies, reinforcing the legal and financial infrastructure that underpins secure technological collaboration.
And make no mistake, Taiwan is not waiting on Washington to protect what both countries have built. In September, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense published a national public safety guide covering air raid response, disinformation awareness and civil defense enrollment, issued under President Lai’s directive.
The presidential committee is backed by the equivalent of $5 billion in dedicated funding for civilian training and the protection of essential energy, infrastructure and healthcare systems, ensuring Taiwan can thrive, not just survive, during crises.
Taiwan prepares its people with the same discipline it brings to building one of the world’s most formidable free markets. Deterrence and economic openness are not separate undertakings in Taiwan but key parts of a strategy to preserve freedom under pressure.
The same instinct toward building together is on display in the defense technology industry. Taiwan’s drone exports have grown nearly twentyfold in a single year, and Taiwanese manufacturers have earned a place on the Pentagon’s approved supplier list at a moment when the free world is rightly wary of Chinese-made hardware. A drone supply chain that runs through Taiwan rather than Beijing is another asset for free world technological security.
Taiwan is also integrating artificial intelligence directly (AI) into its air and missile defenses, fielding battlefield management systems designed to shorten decision time under coordinated missile and drone attacks. These systems depend upon Taiwan’s broader technological ecosystem. That same industrial base underpins the secure supply chains the United States and Taiwan are building together.
These achievements are made possible only because both governments keep choosing to strengthen cooperation: through trade agreements, tax policy, and defense procurement. Taiwan has shown — in chips, in capital and now in drones and AI-enabled defense — that it intends to proactively build this future with America.
Every dollar invested, every agreement ratified and every contract awarded is a choice about who writes the rules for the technologies that will shape the rest of this century. Taiwan has made its choice clear: the technologies that shape our future must stay in free hands.
• Iris Shaw is the Director of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Mission in the United States, where she leads the Party’s outreach to the U.S. government, Congress and the greater policy community.
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