Taiwan’s military planners said U.S. support is essential to the security of the island as anxieties simmer in Taipei about whether Trump would send help to defend against a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s Defense Ministry, in a security road map for the next four years, emphasized the usefulness of U.S. support in areas including intelligence, reconnaissance and ensuring the ability to carry out long-range precision strikes. Taiwan still looks to the U.S. to deter China from going that far, and stepping in if needed. The island appeared to have won a reprieve from the threat of U.S. tariffs earlier this month after the chief of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., with Trump at his side, announced plans to invest at least $100 billion more in chip-manufacturing plants in the U.S. over the next several years. Taiwan Defense Minister Wellington Koo told reporters that he believed maintaining the status quo and stability in the Taiwan Strait remains a core U.S. interest.

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