Taiwan's foreign ministry voiced regret on Wednesday over what it called deliberate distortion after the Kuomintang (KMT) said 
Donald Trump named Taiwan's US representative office as a foreign funder of the Center for American Progress. Chen I-hsin, who chairs the KMT's culture and communications committee, said it was an unusual diplomatic warning sign that Trump, in publicly criticising the think tank, had directly named Taiwan's US representative office as a foreign funder, Liberty Times reported. The ministry told CNA that Taiwan's cooperation with American think tanks does not involve US domestic politics and should not become a subject of political manoeuvring in Taiwan.
What did the KMT say? In a party press release, Chen said Taiwan has long worked with think tanks across the US political spectrum, a practice that did not begin under the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government, but that the basic task of diplomacy is to track political change and adjust in time, CNA reported. If the DPP government was still investing heavily in think tanks close to the US Democratic Party and persistently critical of Trump after his return to the White House, being named publicly by Trump himself raised the question of whether Taiwan's diplomatic approach was out of balance, he said, calling it a matter for public vigilance. Saying Taiwan-US relations were at a sensitive moment, he asked whether the Taiwan government's funding of a think tank Chen called politically hostile, now publicly noticed by Trump, could further affect the administration's view of Taiwan, and whether the National Security Council and the foreign ministry had carried out a risk assessment.
How did the foreign ministry respond? The ministry said it and its overseas missions have long exchanged and cooperated with major US think tanks and academic institutions. That work follows a principle of transparency and involves partners across the American political spectrum, the ministry said in an afternoon response to CNA. Its purpose is to help Taiwan study major issues bearing on global and regional prosperity, such as Indo-Pacific security, supply-chain resilience and key technologies, and to build understanding in the US of Taiwan and Taiwan-US relations.
What did the ministry say about Taiwan-US cooperation? Since Trump took office, cooperation between Taiwan and the US in trade, investment, supply chains, technology and security has kept deepening and produced concrete results, the ministry said. Taiwan values that highly and will keep deepening cooperation with the Trump administration on the principles of mutual respect and mutual benefit, it added.
Figures referenced: Donald Trump. — JudgeMarket.
