Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth is arriving in Taiwan on Monday to reaffirm the United States’ long-term commitment to the island’s security. Her trip is taking place as U.S. President Donald Trump’s transactional approach to foreign relations has increasingly raised questions about Washington’s reliability in the face of rising aggression from China.
Duckworth will be the first U.S. senator to visit Taiwan since Trump’s May meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. During that meeting, Xi told Trump that “the Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-U.S. relations” and warned that if the issue wasn’t handled properly, it could lead to “clashes and even conflicts” between the two countries, per Beijing’s readout of the proceedings. In a Fox News interview that aired immediately after his visit, Trump said U.S. arms sales to Taiwan were a “very good negotiating chip” in relations with Beijing.
Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth is arriving in Taiwan on Monday to reaffirm the United States’ long-term commitment to the island’s security. Her trip is taking place as U.S. President Donald Trump’s transactional approach to foreign relations has increasingly raised questions about Washington’s reliability in the face of rising aggression from China.
Duckworth will be the first U.S. senator to visit Taiwan since Trump’s May meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. During that meeting, Xi told Trump that “the Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-U.S. relations” and warned that if the issue wasn’t handled properly, it could lead to “clashes and even conflicts” between the two countries, per Beijing’s readout of the proceedings. In a Fox News interview that aired immediately after his visit, Trump said U.S. arms sales to Taiwan were a “very good negotiating chip” in relations with Beijing.
Trump’s comments, which came as Taiwan waits for him to sign off on a $14 billion arms package, generated significant anxiety in Taipei. In the interview with Fox News, Trump said he was holding the arms package “in abeyance and it depends on China.” This appeared to break with decades of U.S. policy under what are known as the Six Assurances, one of which stipulates that Washington will not consult with Beijing on arms sales to Taiwan.
“It really is critical to not yield even an inch to President Xi, and that’s why I really wanted to go to Taiwan at this time,” Duckworth told Foreign Policy in an exclusive interview. The trip is meant to send a message to China that “we’re not going to let them bully the rest of the world,” the senator said.
Duckworth believes that her past support for Taiwan, through both legislation and vaccine diplomacy during the COVID-19 pandemic, puts her in a strong position to deliver a message to the island that “the United States will be here” in the long run. “Presidents come, presidents go,” she said, but “the commitment to our role on the global stage remains.”
Duckworth also characterized the visit as a “big economic investment trip.” The Illinois senator emphasized the vital role that Taiwan plays in the global economy through the production of semiconductor chips while stressing the significance of the Taiwan Strait—a critical maritime chokepoint—to international shipping. Duckworth said the U.S. economy would not be able to function “without the manufacturing supply chain that we get out of Taiwan.”
Pointing to the fact that the average American car contains a huge number of chips manufactured in Taiwan, Duckworth said she has been working hard to see the island make investments and manufacture chips in the United States.
“Part of what I’m doing is pushing for economic investments in the United States and particularly in Illinois, but it’s also about national security interests as well,” Duckworth said of the priorities on her visit.
The senator is scheduled to meet with top leaders and officials during her time there, including President Lai Ching-te; Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim; Joseph Wu, the head of Taiwan’s National Security Council; Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu; Ocean Affairs Minister Kuan Bi-ling; Economy Minister Kung Ming-hsin; and Defense Minister Wellington Koo.
Duckworth said the trip is also meant to reassure allies more broadly that the United States will remain engaged with the wider world amid the volatility and consternation bred by the Trump administration’s actions and policies.
“This administration has really de-emphasized diplomacy and America’s role around the world,” Duckworth told Foreign Policy, pointing to the fact that the Trump administration has requested a State Department budget for the next fiscal year of roughly $34 billion—less than what the United States spent in just a few months of “bombing Iran.”
“The rest of the world is nervous, they’re edgy, they are worried about the U.S. cozying up to Russia and to the PRC [People’s Republic of China], and they want to know that America is going to remain engaged,” Duckworth said. This is about “reassuring allies of our commitment” to the Indo-Pacific as a strategic priority, she said.
Taiwan has raised the alarm about Chinese military activities and spying in recent months. China views Taiwan as its own territory and a breakaway province, and there have long been concerns that it could take military action against the island to seize it by force. Trump’s critics have said his unpredictability and relatively amicable stance toward Xi have only added to the island’s fears.
Taiwan is “very worried” that Trump is “waffling on the $14 billion arms package,” Duckworth said. “And frankly his willingness to let China have some sort of a say in whether or not we advance their package is deeply troubling,” she added.
Lai last month expressed optimism that Trump would soon approve the arms package. “President Trump’s arms sales for Taiwan have basically met Taiwan’s needs, and so we also have high hopes about these upcoming arms sales,” the Taiwanese president said in response to a question on the sale. In late June, Michael DeSombre, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told Congress that the arms sale did not depend on China and that there had been no “deviation” from long-standing U.S. policy. But there are still open questions about why Trump is continuing to hold up the package.
In response to a request for comment on the status of the $14 billion arms sale, a senior Trump administration official told Foreign Policy: “As President Trump said, he will make a determination in a fairly short time regarding a new Taiwan arms package.” Trump in mid-May said he would “make a determination over the next fairly short period” regarding the package.
“The President approved $11.1 billion in arms sales to Taiwan in December 2025, consistent with U.S. policy since the 1950s,” the official added. This was the largest U.S. arms package to Taiwan in history. Beijing issued sharp criticism of the record arms sale, launching military drills near Taiwan just 11 days after the package was announced.
Though Washington does not have official diplomatic relations with Taipei, it has maintained close unofficial ties with the island for nearly half a century (while continuing to recognize China as the primary diplomatic representative of the Chinese people but without acknowledging Beijing’s claims of sovereignty over Taiwan). The United States is legally obligated to supply Taiwan with defensive weapons under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act and has provided the island with billions of dollars in arms over the years.
Duckworth said she’s worried Trump is not committed to Taiwan and signaled that even some of her Republican colleagues share her concerns. “Support for Taiwan is bipartisan,” she said.
“Look, I’m a broken-down, old soldier. All I care about is America’s national security,” said Duckworth, an Iraq War combat veteran who lost both of her legs when the Black Hawk helicopter she was co-piloting was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. “And our role in the Indo-Pacific as a Pacific nation, as a leader, both economically but also strategically, is critically important to America’s well-being, and Taiwan is a major part of that,” she said. “Taiwan remaining free and independent is important to our national security.”
