What does it mean for a US presidential admin to be "good for Taiwan"? (Thinking out loud) If it's verbal support for Taiwanese democracy, sending high-level envoys, & arms sales, then it makes sense why many TWese & 1st-gen Taiwanese-Ams argue Trump has been "good for Taiwan" 1/

I voted Biden. But I think it's counterproductive (& inaccurate) when speaking to TWese audiences to say the Trump admin hasn't been "good for Taiwan" in the short run. Biden had decades in the Senate & 8 years in a presidential admin to be more supportive of TW & he wasn't 2/

I've always found the "Trump doesn't really care about Taiwan" litmus test a strange one. Little I've read about Biden - vs the foreign policy team he might be assembling including @elyratner - has convinced me he personally cares about TW either. The "caring" metric is flawed 3/

I'd rather make the case for Biden by arguing that Taiwan needs more than just *US* support in the long run. And a US that will address its own human rights violations & show respect, not contempt, to other democracies is a US that can better rally help for beleaguered allies. 4/

To me, it comes down to the key difficulty Taiwan has had for decades now. US support helps keep us de facto independent. But only lately have other countries started speaking up for Taiwan. And survival will require *broad* moral, diplomatic, logistical & economic partnership 5/

More importantly, we're transitioning out of a historical moment (starting w/the Taiwan Relations Act of '79) when informal US support helped to create a new Taiwanese nation (vs. ROC) *and* was sufficient to shield it from Chinese takeover. TW must learn to survive this shift 6/