“Abandoning Taiwan and allowing it to fall into the hands of the Chinese Communist Party would not only betray our values, it would also endanger the security and prosperity of the United States and the free world,” former U.S. vice president Mike Pence said in a speech in Taipei on Friday.
Pence arrived in Taiwan after spending Thursday in Hong Kong. American media The Hill reported that a meeting is planned with Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te (賴清德), as well as vice president Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴).
Pence served as vice president during the first Trump administration and was vocal about supporting Taiwan. He was speaking at an event to mark the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Taipei Language Institute and Purdue Research Foundation.
During his speech, Pence made a direct appeal to Trump and his new team: “I call on the new administration in Washington, D.C. and freedom-loving nations around the world to urgently renew our commitment to providing Taiwan with the support it needs to defend itself and its freedom.” Pence had reportedly not spoken to Trump for four years until the two met at former president Jimmy Carter’s funeral at the beginning of this year.
Pence also directly addressed fears, in Taiwan and elsewhere, that the U.S. could be seen as an unreliable partner, suggesting this is in part due to Chinese misinformation and psychological warfare. “The CCP wants Taiwanese people to doubt America’s friendship and support, and I came today to say, ‘Don’t doubt.’’’
When talking about a possible fall of Taiwan and what lies ahead, Pence said it would likely spark a new nuclear arms race, as smaller Asian nations would lose faith in America’s security commitments and develop their own nuclear arms. To prevent this and maintain regional stability, Pence said it is important to strengthen U.S.-Taiwan relations through initiatives such as free trade agreements, continuing America’s role in preserving peace with friends and allies across Asia for nearly a century. He also reiterated that both the U.S. and Taiwan support the current state of affairs, accusing the “president of China” of being the one who wants to change the status quo.
Pence’s speech displayed a surprisingly deep, and unsurprisingly partisan, understanding of the relationship between Taiwan and China in his speech. He said that “Taiwan has been and remains one of the greatest friends the Chinese people have ever known. Taiwan has been a driving source of prosperity for China.” (Taiwan was for a time the largest provider of foreign direct investment to China after the establishment of economic links between the two countries in the 1980s.)
Pence was in Hong Kong to attend the UBS Wealth Insights 2025 summit, a high profile business conference. That event was closed to the media, but Pence made reference to his remarks in today’s speech: “As I said in Hong Kong just yesterday, I’m proud to report during my time as Vice President of the United States, the now incoming new president and I changed the national consensus on China of the United States.” He went on to say that “Now there is a broad and bipartisan agreement in our nation’s capital, that China today represents the greatest strategic and economic threat facing our nation and our allies.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, Pence also called for the release of Jimmy Lai (黎智英) the imprisoned founder of pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily. One has to wonder what Beijing will think of Hong Kong’s leaders allowing Pence to visit and make those remarks on Chinese soil.
Pence’s visit to Taiwan comes at a surprising time. It is only three days before the inauguration of Donald Trump as president for the second time, the man he served under as vice president but who now has little good to say about him. It’s been four years and 11 days, since Pence refused to block the certification of Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election.
Pence’s strong words in today’s speech, not only reiterating that Americans support Taiwan but also calling on the incoming administration to continue to do so, will no doubt please Taiwan’s government and be well received domestically here. Pence explicitly appealed to Taiwanese people not to doubt the strength of American commitment to them. However, if Pence is indeed now persona non grata with Trump and the people around him, will a direct appeal for him to support Taiwan, made in Taipei, really have the desired effect?
It seems at least possible that it would be anti-persuasive, even be seen as a quasi-insult by Trump. Taiwan lacks opportunities to host senior figures like Pence, and the government perhaps feels it must take them when it can, but the timing here is eyebrow-raising to say the least.
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