In a review of Taipei’s military policy, the country’s Defense Ministry concluded that Taiwan should maintain strong security ties with the United States. The Taiwanese officials who authored the document said the partnership with Washington was needed in an increasingly unstable world.
The Quadrennial Defense Review, a military report produced after each new leader takes office, argued that the US remains “a crucial strategic partner, working closely with us on military cooperation and helping to boost our self-defense capabilities.”
The authors added that Taiwan’s ties with the US, along with several other steps, were needed as “The current international strategic environment’s main characteristics are the continuation of US-China competition and the simultaneous existence of several regional conflicts, presenting relative complexity and uncertainty.”
The QDR called on Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te “to promote military exchanges with the US, deepening bilateral cooperation in areas such as policy dialogue and visits, intelligence sharing, operational topic discussions, joint military exercises, military research and development, and the defense industry.”
The Wall Street Journal noted that the 2025 QDR placed far more emphasis on Taipei’s relationship with Washington than previous versions of the report. Lin Ying-yu, a defense expert who teaches at Tamkang University in Taiwan, told the outlet that this marks a significant change.
The new material in Tuesday’s report could mean “exchanges with the US is an essential area we’re going to keep strengthening in the future,” she said. “The QDR is not just for the Taiwanese people, it’s also meant to be read by the outside world about how much the Taiwan-US cooperation is deepening.”
The steps to deepen ties with the US are likely to upset China, as Beijing views Taiwan as a breakaway region and part of its own sovereign territory. In recent years, the People’s Republic has complained about US military aid and high-level delegations sent to the island. Beijing argues that such acts violate the One China Policy that was established in the 1972 “Joint Communiqué” between the US and China.
That policy called on Washington to retain a position of “strategic ambiguity” toward Taiwan, meaning the US would not commit to the island’s defense or treat Taipei as an independent country, but without ever officially announcing that stance.
Starting with Barack Obama, American presidents have moved away from the policy of ambiguity and clarified that the US would, in fact, defend Taiwan, all the while providing Taipei with military aid.
