What Did the False Information Say About Taiwan-U.S. Relations After the U.S. Presidential Transition

Uncertainty is the fertile ground for the proliferation of false information. Since the commencement of U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term, various international events have sent mixed signals about the relationship between Taiwan and the United States.

In addition to rumors that exploited the U.S.’s changing attitudes toward Ukraine to instill fear in the Taiwanese people that Taiwan could meet a challenge similar to Ukraine’s, a couple of false claims—either entirely fabricated or manipulated from original messages—also leveraged new political uncertainties.

Interestingly, not all the false claims promoted skepticism toward the U.S. Instead, some asserted that the new U.S. administration has made significant strides in helping Taiwan to improve its political status in the international community.

Amid the recent surge of false information related to the Taiwan-U.S. relationships following President Trump’s inauguration, two major themes have competed to influence Taiwan’s public opinion:

The theme of the U.S. abandoning Taiwan is not new. Such claims have been promoted not only by actors from China but also by some Taiwanese media and social media users, who have consistently spread these messages during Taiwanese elections or critical international conflicts.

The claims that surfaced after the Trump administration began stressed the “signs” suggesting that the new administration might abandon Taiwan. For example, disinformation purveyors took previous statements made by new members of the Trump administration out of context or fabricated entire lies.

One typical case involved reframing past statements made by Austin Dahmer, the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy in the second Trump administration.

Soon after his appointment, the Taiwanese pro-unification media outlet, China Times, published an article citing the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP), emphasizing in the title of the article that “a high-ranking U.S. official stated that Americans will continue to live their good lives even if Taiwan is lost.”

The original SCMP article presented facts and discussed the new administration’s stance on aiding Ukraine and the implications for Taiwan. However, China Times only highlighted the most striking aspect and omitted several important contextual details, such as when and where Dahmer made his statements. Without these details, it appeared as though Dahmer, as a high-ranking US official, implied that Taiwan-U.S. relations were no longer a serious concern for the new administration.

In fact, Dahmer’s comments quoted in the news articles derive from two separate X posts that he made back in 2024.

One post was published in February 2024 when the U.S. Senate passed the Act to aid Ukraine, while the other, which aimed to urge Taiwan to invest more resources in national defense, was posted in August 2024.

At that time, Dahmer was a staff member for U.S. Senator Josh Hawley instead of a member in the administration. The China Times article blurred these details and thus bordered on poor journalism and false information.

However, this article has since been circulated by other Taiwanese media outlets and integrated into the broader Chinese-language information ecosystem, including Chinese social media, serving as evidence for skeptics that the U.S. intended to decouple its interests from Taiwan.

Wishful thinking: claims of upgraded U.S. recognition of Taiwan

Among the false information regarding Taiwan-U.S. relations, another competing narrative is the claim that the Trump administration took significant steps to enhance Taiwan’s status. One of the false assertions related to a long-standing proposal advocated by Taiwanese who seek to change the name from “Republic of China” to “Taiwan.”

Shortly after Trump began his second term, social media posts suggested that the Trump administration allowed Taiwanese visa applicants and those applying for American citizenship to list “Taiwan” as their country of birth instead of “Republic of China.”

The posts asserted that this policy change, recognizing “Taiwan” in official documents, was a positive indication of Trump’s support for Taiwan.

Nevertheless, the claim was inaccurate. The U.S. government, according to fact-checking by the Taiwan FactCheck Center, has allowed Taiwanese applicants for American citizenship to indicate “Taiwan” as their birth country as early as May 2019, during the Biden administration.

Furthermore, this rule applies only to Taiwanese applying for American citizenship and is irrelevant to visa applications for entry to the U.S.    

The spread of false statements that the Trump administration has made new positive changes in Taiwan affairs reflects wishful thinking among some fervent supporters of the new administration. One claim even linked Elon Musk’s call for the U.S. to leave the United Nations to the U.S.’s support for Taiwan’s entry into the United Nations.

According to the fake claim, Musk and the Trump administration threatened to withdraw from the U.N. in order to pressure the U.N. to accept Taiwan as a member state. This assertion was propagated by a YouTube influencer, whose video was thereafter shared on Facebook.

In reality, the Trump administration has never advocated for Taiwan’s U.N. membership. Although Trump did consider the withdrawal from the United Nations for a variety of reasons and has pulled the U.S. from the U.N. Human Rights Council, the support for Taiwan was not one of them.

Tariffs as a trigger for misinformation

With the many events unfolding rapidly in Washington that send shocking waves and impacts around the world, each event could inspire new rumors. The recent tariffs imposed (and then paused) by the U.S. on other countries have inevitably become fodder for disinformation.

Because these tariffs could affect Taiwan’s economy, the main theme of the misinformation regarding Taiwan-U.S. relations following the tariff announcements is to incite fears, worries, and anger among the Taiwanese; some false claims have resurfaced from previous times but have been rehashed during the recent trade war.

For instance, one claim alleged that a U.S. government branch, “the U.S. National Defense Institute [美國國防院],” which is in reality not existent, issued a report suggesting Taiwan merge with the U.S. and become the U.S.’s 51st state. This false assertion stemmed from an article by a U.S. scholar. While the original article contemplated the possibility of Taiwan becoming part of the U.S., the author clearly indicated that this proposal was impractical.

However, rumor-mongers seized upon the article, distorted its original intent, and falsely claimed it was a proposal from the American government. The motivation behind this falsehood was to cast doubt on the U.S.’s intentions in supporting Taiwan and to provoke discontent among the Taiwanese towards the U.S.

It is almost certain that uncertainties will arise due to the evolving U.S. policies on both domestic and global matters. These uncertainties will, in turn, create more opportunities for false information producers with various purposes and driven by different ideologies, who are always seeking chances to sway public opinion. An uphill battle awaits us.

Wei-Ping Li is a research fellow at the Taiwan FactCheck Center.