Taipei must break free of its abusive relationship with Washington

If Caligula were the president of the United States, Taiwan’s leader William Lai Ching-te might still kowtow to him. By now, it seems pretty clear that US President Donald Trump has no real policies to speak of, only caprice and vague ideological preferences. That was how bad emperors acted, and Trump obviously sees himself as some kind of king, unrestrained by anything other than his personal inclinations. It’s not surprising there have been “No Kings” protests across the US.From his lifelong business habit, Trump is a taker and an abuser of the law. So now he is acting the same way with US allies and partners. Taiwan is no exception. Many of them are waking up to that reality, but not Lai and his Democratic Progressive Party.Blinded by secessionism, Lai is a one-trick pony. That means being as obsequious to Washington, and as confrontational with Beijing as possible. If that ends up handing over a big chunk of the island’s key semiconductor industry to the US, that’s fine. Forget the so-called silicon shield.But yielding endlessly to Trump’s whims won’t satisfy him. He now repeats his complaint about Taiwan supposedly ripping off the US semiconductor industry. This was despite a deal Taiwan reached in January, and finalised in February, by bending over backwards to accommodate Trump.The occasion? The US Supreme Court’s majority decision that Trump’s tariffs were unconstitutional. The ink on the justices’ decision wasn’t even dry when he declared he would impose a 15 per cent tariff on all imports under a different US law.The supposed leader of the free world shows no restraint in verbally abusing anyone he doesn’t like, whether they are women in journalism asking questions or non-compliant justices of the US Supreme Court ruling against his tariffs. “Fools and lapdogs”, he called the justices.A man rides a scooter past shipping containers at the port in Keelung, Taiwan, on January 16. Photo: AFP