AIT Chair Fired?

Laura Rosenberger, a key China advisor to former president Joe Biden, is no longer listed as chair of the de facto U.S. embassy in Taiwan. 

Rosenberger was appointed as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) in March of 2023. The chair of AIT conducts policy-level discussions on Taiwan and represents the administration in visits to Taiwan and in meetings with Taiwan representatives in the United States.

Domino Theory has been unable to confirm Rosenberger’s status with AIT. A reporter called AIT’s Taipei main office and was instructed to send an email to AIT’s Washington headquarters. She is listed among “Former Chairs of the American Institute in Taiwan” on AIT’s website, “Tenure: 2023 – 2025.”

Before taking over the AIT chair position in 2023, Rosenberger served as the senior director for China and Taiwan on the National Security Council in the Biden administration and was previously a career foreign service officer. She was a foreign policy advisor on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Having visited Taiwan on five different occasions, Rosenberger’s last Taiwan trip was in March of 2024. She met with members of the Legislative Yuan, leaders of the major political parties and scholars to promote U.S.-Taiwan collaboration on issues of mutual interest such as regional security, mutually beneficial trade and investment, and people-to-people educational and cultural ties.

Rosenberger last tweeted a statement as AIT chair in December, while President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) was on a seven-day visit to Taiwan’s diplomatic allies in the South Pacific. During a stop in Hawaii, Lai was welcomed by AIT Managing Director Ingrid Larsson instead as Rosenberger was on maternity leave, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

President Donald Trump said in a January 21 post on his Truth Social platform that his personnel office was “in the process of identifying and removing over a thousand Presidential Appointees from the previous Administration.”

Update: As of February 7, 2025, an AIT spokesperson told Domino Theory that “Laura Rosenberger’s tenure as Chair of the AIT Board of Trustees ended on January 21. The Chair is appointed by the AIT Board of Trustees acting upon the recommendation of the Department of State.”