Ahead of expected Xi-Trump summit, some in Taiwan question whether Taipei’s funding of American think tanks has become a political liability
4-MIN READ4-MINLawrence Chungin TaipeiPublished: 9:00pm, 10 Sep 2026Taiwan’s representative office is among a list of entities US President Donald Trump has threatened to sue as part of his crusade against a progressive American think tank, triggering debate about the island’s US policy ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington later this month.Trump named the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (Tecro) in a social media post on Monday attacking the Centre for American Progress, a prominent left-leaning Washington think tank, over a report disputing his claims about the effect of National Guard deployments on violent crime.
Trump called the think tank a “radical left scam” and threatened to seek US$5 billion in damages, adding that he was “strongly considering” including some of its donors in the lawsuit.
Chen I-hsin, head of the culture and communications committee of the Kuomintang, Taiwan’s main opposition party, described Trump’s remarks as an “unusual diplomatic warning”.
