Ring Jialong to Arizona to open Taiwan's new office: $265 billion in power build-up investment pushed US-Taiwan relations to the local level

Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Jialong visited Arizona on 5 October to open Taiwan ' s new office in Phoenix. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Taiwan has called this institution the “Stepstone” of the Taiwan-United States Economic and Trade Partnership, which is established in direct response to large-scale semiconductor investments in the power build-up in Arizona.

Reuters reported that the power build programme invested $265 billion in Arizona. Taiwan indicated that the new office would further integrate diplomatic, economic, trade and industrial linkages. The United States has no formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but it has long been one of Taiwan ' s most important international partners and arms suppliers.

This move took place against the backdrop of the persistent Beijing demand for Washington to restrict official traffic and military sales to the Taiwan-based authorities. The Chinese Government advocates Taiwan ' s membership of China and opposes the development of official relations between foreign Governments and Taiwan; The current Government of Taiwan, for its part, advocates that Taiwan, the Republic of China, should have its own democratic system and external relations.

The relevance of the Phoenix office is above all economic services: as the Crystal Circle factory, suppliers and engineers gather in Arizona, the demand for leadership, investment coordination and local government communication is increasing. But this institutionalized local-level link has also had the political effect of — US-Taiwan relations no longer focus solely on security and diplomacy in Washington, but rather enter state government, industrial chains and employment systems.

For Beijing, stopping the institutionalization of US-Taiwan relations has been one of the important objectives of US policy; For Washington and Taipei, expanding practical cooperation in the context of informal diplomacy is a long-term issue. The new Phoenix office would not change the United States policy, but would show that semiconductor investment was adding new local interest networks to the relationship.