Trumpworld insiders believe Taiwan will likely move to leverage its semiconductor manufacturing empire, a so-called Silicon Shield, in talks with the White House as President Donald Trump mulls the latest sale of American weapons to the island.The United States has sold weapons to Taiwan for decades, but the Trump administration paused the latest transfer last fall amid frosty relations with China. The subject was a core focus for Chinese President Xi Jinping when he hosted Trump for a state visit earlier this month, and Trump left Beijing without making a “determination” on the issue.Instead, the president told reporters he would wait to decide until after speaking with Taiwanese President William Lai. A sitting U.S. president has not spoken directly with the president of Taiwan since 1979, though Trump himself spoke with then-Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen when he was technically the president-elect in December 2016.
A Trump-Lai call has yet to be scheduled, but two former senior Trump White House aides told the Washington Examiner the Taiwanese president will almost certainly point to the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and the island’s semiconductor industry writ large in order to grease the wheels on the weapons transfer.
