"Any day that the United States abandons Ukraine is going to be a horrible day for Taiwan. Period. No matter what we say about how much we love Taiwan, it will be a catastrophically bad day for Taiwan,” says Ryan Hass, Koo Chair in Taiwan Studies and Director of the China Center, Brookings Institution.

“This is bad and it is serious. And I think we are in engaging in sort of a fallacy if we think that if we abandon Ukraine but say we love Taiwan, that Taiwan will be better off. It simply won’t, period. I think we should be honest with ourselves and our community about this. And it will be unfortunate. Because if you look at the record of the past year, the United States has built pretty significant momentum in Asia. With Japan and South Korea, with AUKUS, with the Quad, with the Philippines. There is sort of a strong sense that there is a favorable tailwind for American efforts in the region. This would reverse that.

“It would be a glorious day for propaganda writers in Beijing, to be able to make the case that America is absent and unreliable. And beware, you Taiwan friends, beware, you Filipino friends - of who you are depending on for your security. And so as a community I just implore us to be clear and direct in making this point.”

-Very important important points made here by Ryan Hass.

Watch the whole discussion on the outcome of the Taiwan election, held at the Hudson Institute, also featuring Bonnie Glaser, Managing Director, Indo-Pacific, German Marshall Fund, and Russell Hsiao, Executive Director, Global Taiwan Institute.

This and more of the latest China and Taiwan news in this and every issue of Trade War: