Caught between the U.S. and China, young people in Taiwan just want things to stay the same

Taiwan's youth are stuck. There's growing concern in Taipei over the reliability of the Trump-led U.S. as a security partner, even despite Chinese aggression.

Young people in Taiwan are used to living with uncertainty when it comes to China — a situation they generally say is for the best for the time being, particularly when recent actions by the Trump administration have some of them asking a question.

“Can Taiwan continue to view the U.S. as an ally?” said Chan Yu-hsiang, 25, a graduate student at National Taiwan University.

Chan’s question reflects growing concern in Taiwan over the reliability of the U.S. as a security partner under President Donald Trump, who has expressed support for the Beijing-claimed island in the face of Chinese military threats but also made critical remarks and upended trade relations.

In a Taiwan government poll released in March, the percentage of respondents who said the U.S. military would “definitely” intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion dropped to 14% from 19% a year earlier. Almost half of respondents said the U.S. military was unlikely to intervene, the same as a poll by the Brookings Institution conducted the same month.

According to the same Taiwan government poll, 36% of respondents said U.S.-Taiwan relations would get worse under Trump, a 12% increase since January.