Taiwan establishes new office in Arizona to deepen Taiwan-U.S. economic and trade cooperation

Taiwan previously had the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States and 12 "Taipei Economic and Cultural Offices (TECO)" in the United States. The background of Taiwan's establishment of an office in Arizona is that chip manufacturer TSMC is investing US$265 billion to build a factory there. Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the new office marks "a milestone in the Taiwan-US economic and trade partnership" and that the two sides will deepen the "mutually beneficial and symbiotic" partnership between Taiwan and the United States on the basis of mutual trust.

The United States has no formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, and China claims sovereignty over Taiwan, but Washington has always been Taiwan's most important international partner and arms supplier. The Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States in Washington, D.C., is the general representative office, equivalent to an embassy, ​​and handles high-level bilateral political, economic, military and cultural exchanges between Taiwan and the United States. The offices in New York and other places are equivalent to consulates in operation, handling consular services such as passport renewal, document certification, visa consultation, and emergency relief for local people and expatriates.

In 2020, after TSMC announced that it would invest and set up a factory in Arizona, more than 200 companies in Taiwan's semiconductor supply chain have successively set up factories or established operating companies in the United States, where industrial clusters and living communities are gradually forming.

Top Taiwanese officials often make informal trips to the United States, but current President Lai Ching-te has yet to make such a trip since the start of President Trump's second term. Before Lin Jialong's visit to the United States this time, he also stayed in Central America before arriving in Arizona.

After Trump visited Beijing in May this year, a US$14 billion arms sales case to Taiwan was temporarily shelved. The United States believed that this was a good "negotiation bargaining chip" in its fight with Beijing. China has been asking the United States to stop selling arms to Taiwan, and after Xi Jinping met Trump in Washington last month, the U.S. president said China understood his position on the Taiwan issue.