The inauguration of the 46th President of the U.S. officially announced to the country and the world that the era of Biden has officially been ushered in. Biden’s inauguration speech emphasized the need to unite the country, which fully reflected his various challenges, including the raging pandemic in the U.S., the severe economic damage, and differences in domestic politics.

Although Biden will give priority to solving domestic problems after taking office, as a world leader, he still didn’t forget to address the world in his inauguration speech to declare that the U.S. foreign policy will be based on the resilience of American democracy in the next four years, rebuilding allies’ confidence in the U.S. Faced with Biden’s priority of domestic politics over diplomacy, or even the inclination of shifting its relationship with China from tense conflicts to rational competition, how should Taiwan react?

In the past four years, the Trump administration’s foreign policy has adopted bilateralism. Although it has successfully demonstrated the hard power of the U.S., it lacked communication and coordination. The U.S. has used its muscle to win the cooperation of allies ostensibly, but it in fact has tarnished the external image of the U.S.

According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in the U.S., the popularity of the U.S. among the people of democracies has fallen sharply in the past four years. In the past, more than half of the British, French, and German citizens in Europe had a positive impression of the U.S., and now only 20%-30% of them still have expectations of the U.S. Even Japan, which relies on the protection of the U.S., has also changed its view of the U.S. The trust of the allies in the Trump administration fell to the bottom, even as low as 10% in Germany. This is why Biden emphasized in his inauguration speech that the U.S. will no longer show its strength in foreign policy to threaten allies to cooperate with the U.S.

Intention to call on allies to follow with democratic values does seem to resort to moral standards. However, after the past four years of a foreign policy that prioritizes U.S. interests, idealistic discourses may not be able to reverse the image of the U.S. Therefore, Biden also declared in his inauguration speech that the U.S. will face the current challenges side by side with its democratic allies, and he also promised to face the difficulties of the future together. Although Biden has not clearly identified competitors, from the perspective of Biden’s national security team and the various proposals that are underway, the biggest competitor of the U.S. in the future refers to China.

The confrontation with China during Trump’s term has become an unfinished achievement according to the words of Mike Pompeo, the former Secretary of State. The main reason is that Trump has also set off a trade war, a science and technology war, and a political war with China. These three battles divided their force and led to half of the results with double the efforts. The limited resources in the U.S. will force Biden to confront China in the future, and he must choose the most important battlefield for the U.S. more wisely, rather than fighting on all fronts.

In the three battles started by Trump, the technology war, which is directly related to the national security of the U.S., is one where the Biden team will not make concessions. However, they are likely to make room for negotiation in trade and political wars. The political conflicts between the U.S. and China refer to the issues of Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Taiwan.

The Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and the Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell designated by Biden are all experts who have a good knowledge of Asian affairs who know the importance of Taiwan. However, they also know very clearly that there is a certain line between the strength of supporting Taiwan and the stability of the relationship among the U.S., China, and Taiwan. Blinken already drew his line of supporting Taiwan clearly at his congressional nomination hearing when he stated that the U.S. would stick to its commitments based on the Taiwan Relations Act and assist Taiwan in building its self-defense capabilities.

Obviously, the pragmatic team of Biden will probably not go beyond the traditional U.S.-China-Taiwan relationship to strengthen its support for Taiwan. The only way to gain support is for the U.S. government to re-evaluate Taiwan’s position in the U.S.-China competition. It should be emphasized that supporting Taiwan is not a moral question of supporting democracy or not or the difference between a market of 1.4 billion and 23 million, but that Taiwan is the only critical help in the world that can cooperate with the U.S. to influence other countries in its external technology war.

It should be a bipartisan effort that requires the wisdom from both sides in Taiwan to figure out how to highlight the advantages of Taiwan and to make the team of Biden willing to commit more to Taiwan.

It is generally expected that there will not be too many surprises in the exchanges between Taiwan and the U.S. in Biden’s term. However, if even the most pragmatic Democratic Party and Biden’s team are convinced and willing to increase their support for Taiwan, there is a bigger chance to strike a balance of long-term and stable peace across the Strait and among the U.S., China, and Taiwan. As Biden said in his inauguration speech, “don’t tell me things can’t change,” the same will be for the development of Taiwan-U.S. relations in the next four years.

(Dennis Weng Lu-Chung, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Sam Houston State University.)

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