Robert Tsao Hsing-cheng Tsao, the founder of United Microelectronics Corp UMC, speaks during a news conference in Taipei on Nov. 11, 2024. The Chinese government has allegedly imposed sanctions on him for advocating Taiwan independence.IMAGO/Jameson_Wu/Reuters
Taiwanese tycoon Robert Tsao, hit by Beijing sanctions last fall for funding a civil-defence force to resist a Chinese invasion, says U.S. President Donald Trump can’t afford to let the People’s Liberation Army take Taiwan.
Mr. Tsao, among the self-governing island’s wealthiest people, said in an interview Monday that if China were to succeed in annexing Taiwan, as it hopes, Beijing would gain a commanding position enabling it to drive U.S. forces out of the Western Pacific.
Known for founding microchip maker United Microelectronics Corp. and collecting art, the 77-year-old Mr. Tsao has become a household name in Taiwan for funding events or projects that draw attention to the threat that the People’s Republic of China poses to the democracy of 24 million people.
Mr. Trump, who has recently threatened tariffs on Taiwan’s semiconductors, told Bloomberg during the 2024 presidential campaign that he “wouldn’t feel too secure if I was [Taiwan]” and suggested that the island should pay the United States for its defence.
Mr. Tsao noted that famed U.S. general Douglas MacArthur once called Taiwan an “unsinkable aircraft carrier” of immense value that is ideally located to project military force in the Pacific.
The businessman said Taiwan’s strategic position in the first island chain off the Asian mainland could give China the upper hand to drive the U.S. military out of the region.
“If China took us over, it would be a big problem for the United States, especially after Mr. Trump said he wants to make America great again,” he said in an interview, adding that the U.S. President would not want to give China this “strategic beachhead.”
In 2022, Mr. Tsao committed millions of dollars to helping Taiwan prepare for a Chinese invasion, including civil-defence training for civilians. This was among the reasons in October, 2024, that the Chinese government imposed sanctions on him and a legislator who cofounded the civil-defence organization Kuma Academy.
Mr. Tsao has helped fund a new TV miniseries, Zero Day, expected to be released this year that will dramatize, for the first time, what an attack from China might look like.
“There’s a complacency problem in Taiwan,” he said, predicting the series will deliver a shock to viewers. He’s underwritten work on Taiwan by think tanks such as the Hudson Institute and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the Halifax International Security Forum, which is holding a conference in Taipei this week.
In January, Mr. Tsao waded into domestic politics after opposition parties including the Kuomintang (KMT) teamed up to support cuts and freezes to government spending, including foreign affairs and defence.
He formed a committee to help target dozens of Kuomintang legislators with recall petitions – measures that could force them to face election challenges before their regular term is up. Mr. Tsao accused Beijing of engineering these spending cuts and freezes.
Mr. Tsao, who once relinquished his Taiwanese citizenship after a dispute with Taipei over his dealings with a Chinese company, said his experience as a former permanent resident of Hong Kong, watching the crackdown on the former British colony, persuaded him that Beijing’s authoritarian Chinese Communist Party can’t be trusted. He regained his Taiwanese citizenship in 2022.
Mr. Tsao, who in the past had urged a referendum on whether Taiwan should join China, now wants to see the end of the CCP, which has had a grip on power on the mainland for 76 years. His public about-face on China marks Mr. Tsao as perhaps the most outspoken member of Taiwan’s business elite.
“Nobody has a right to trade Taiwan for anything,” he said. “We’re not for sale.”
Relations between Taiwan and China have grown increasingly strained as Beijing has stepped up its menacing of the self-governing island.
China considers Taiwan a breakaway province despite the fact it has never ruled the island, where defeated Nationalist forces retreated after losing the Chinese civil war more than 70 years ago. China has sought to annex the island and has not ruled out using force. It has staged military exercises near Taiwan more than 10 times since 2018.
On Monday, China urged the United States to “correct its mistakes” after the U.S. State Department removed previous wording on its website about not supporting Taiwan independence, which it said was part of a routine update.
The U.S. military has said that China aims to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027.
Mr. Tsao thinks China fears military action and had a hand in the Taiwan government budget-cutting legislation, which was backed by the opposition Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, and another party. “Taking real military action is a big challenge. So instead, they try to, you know, put a Trojan horse into Taiwan to subvert Taiwan from inside,” he said.
The China-skeptical Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which currently rules Taiwan, does not have a majority of seats in the island’s legislature. It has said that these cuts and freezes backed by the Kuomintang and the Taiwan People’s Party are an “existential threat” to Taiwan, given the dangers posed by Beijing.
Alexander Huang, director of international affairs for the Kuomintang, said the cuts and freezes are not irresponsible and are intended to send a signal to the DPP to focus on essential spending priorities. Freezes to some budget money for Taiwan’s homegrown submarine development program, for instance, reflect his party’s lack of confidence in what it considers a “long-shot” project, he said.
Mr. Huang said Mr. Tsao’s intervention to campaign for recalls of KMT legislators is not helpful. “It’s very hard for me to see Robert Tsao as a person who truly understands the need for Taiwan to maintain peace and stability,” he said. “To me, he is kind of trying to create chaos.”
Mr. Tsao said it’s impossible to have a good relationship with the Chinese government. “Just like a COVID-19 virus, they’re trying to hurt us. You want to build a relationship with the virus?”
With reports from Reuters