◎ The establishment of the people
In the U.S. midterm elections, the Democratic Party won a majority of U.S. gubernatorial seats for the first time in 20 years. The comebacks in Texas, Georgia, Ohio and Iowa were particularly eye-catching. The picture shows Hinojosa, the Democratic governor of Texas. (Reuters)
The voting results of the 2026 U.S. midterm elections were announced. The Democratic Party set off a strong blue wave across the United States, overturning the dominance of the House and Senate in one fell swoop, officially ending the Republican Party's complete governance during Trump's second term. This major shift in the power sector announced that Washington's decision-making has officially returned to the normal operating track of constitutional decentralization and congressional checks and balances; its essence breaks the shallow-dish myth that administrative unilateralism dominates the international geopolitical destiny, and more profoundly reshapes the institutional game of the Indo-Pacific security defense line. When some public opinion is still caught up in the emotional ups and downs of individual American politicians, the nervous system of the national security center must have a clear macro-level determination; the real strategic ballast of US-Taiwan relations has always been the legal defense line and democratic alliance network built by the US Congress across parties over the years, rather than the impromptu words and deeds of any single political figure.
Examining the U.S. constitutional system, Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution clearly stipulates that Congress has the exclusive authority to tax, regulate foreign trade, and federal budgetary appropriations, making the White House’s attempt to unilaterally impose extreme tariffs and economic and trade coercion encounter substantial constitutional checks and balances. Trump has repeatedly publicly demanded that Taiwan pay defense "protection fees" of up to 10% of gross domestic product. After the Democratic Party regained control of the 54 seats in the Senate and the House Foreign Affairs and Military Committees, it has completely lost the focus of turning it into legal policy. Instead, cross-party leaders in Congress have focused more on the delivery bottleneck of the Pentagon's arms sales to Taiwan that have accumulated more than 20 billion US dollars in delays, and vigorously hold administrative officials accountable through normal hearing procedures. With the federal national debt exceeding 36 trillion U.S. dollars in fiscal austerity, the strict review mechanism of Congress’s appropriation power has essentially brought U.S.-Taiwan defense cooperation back from a commercial transaction with sky-high prices to a pragmatic and precise asymmetric combat power building track.
Looking at the coordinates of the Indo-Pacific alliance and the high-tech industry chain, the Democratic-led Congress will more firmly maintain the coordination of multilateral democratic alliances and oppose unilateral isolationism; the US$52.7 billion statutory appropriation for the chip bill has also received a solid legal barrier, effectively resolving the unpredictable risk of sudden policy changes due to regime changes. However, the Democratic Party caucus has more strictly scrutinized the labor conditions, environmental regulations and technology protection thresholds of industrial subsidies, and major allies in East Asia have also simultaneously restructured economic and trade dialogue channels with the United States. Facing tighter industrial supervision from Washington, the best way for Taiwan's technology community to avoid risks is to ensure that the most advanced manufacturing processes and core R&D energy are always deeply cultivated in the local area, ensuring strategic initiative with an irreplaceable key node position, and preventing core technologies from being transferred to the outside through pan-politicization.
In the face of Washington's strict industrial supervision, the best way for Taiwan's technology community to avoid risks is to ensure that advanced manufacturing processes and core R&D energy are always deeply cultivated in the local area, ensuring strategic initiative as an irreplaceable key node; schematic diagram. (AP)
To be fair, the separation of government and Yuan can certainly prevent White House administrative arbitrariness and secret black-box transactions, but the accompanying budget tug-of-war and bill boycotts are also unavoidable real institutional costs of the democratic system. Historical data shows that the federal budget review during the divided government period was delayed by more than a month on average, and the special foreign military assistance bill is more likely to become a bargaining chip in the political struggle between the two parties. If Taiwan's foreign-related and public service systems are only accustomed to one-way bets or stick to the rules, and fail to proactively cultivate the standing committees of the two houses of Congress and professional staff networks, they may become passive in the lengthy budget race.
The true essence of defensive democracy lies in the long-term resilience of a democratic constitutional system to self-correct and resist authoritarian expansion in accordance with the law. The Taiwan Relations Act and the previous National Defense Authorization Act, created and protected by the U.S. Congress for nearly half a century, are solid institutional red lines that transcend partisan differences. Faced with the new changes in the reorganization of power in Washington, Taiwanese society must completely get rid of the speculative mentality of relying on the political disputes of major powers for national security, and deepen a cross-party defense network based on shared values and institutional trust. Only by firmly implementing self-defense determination and national defense independence, and building up substantive strength that cannot be easily shaken, can we protect the long-term stability of Taiwan's liberal democratic system in the international geopolitical tide.
(The author is a freelancer with a professional background in military and political science)
