Serious question: Does Taiwan care whether or not it continues existing as a sovereign republic? Or is Taiwan somewhat ambivalent about that existence?

The question is made serious by two factors.

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First, Taiwan will spend just $18.75 billion, or approximately 2.5% of its GDP, on defense in 2024. This will mean defense spending has risen from roughly 2% of GDP in 2017 to roughly 2.5% in 2023, as Focus Taiwan reported. President Tsai Ing-wen's government told Focus Taiwan that this 0.5% GDP increase "is a testament to the government's determination to defend the country."

That might be true were Taiwan a Caribbean island. But it is not. Instead, Taiwan is an island just 80 miles from the Chinese mainland. Eighty miles from a regime that views Taiwan's subjugation as a near-spiritual imperative. Eighty miles from the second-most powerful military on Earth. Eighty miles away from a People's Liberation Army, that is to say, that has spent decades near-singularly focused on developing the means of conquering Taiwan and denying its effective defense by the United States.

Considering that Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan successfully before this decade is out, a Taiwan that was serious about its continued existence would be at least doubling its current expenditure on defense. Were Taipei truly serious about deterring and defeating a PLA attack, it would be spending closer to 10% of its GDP on defense. In turn, Taiwan's defense budget testifies only to its apparent determination not to deter Chinese attack.

That's the first factor justifying the question. The second factor comes from a Bloomberg report that outlines how Taiwanese technology firms are helping China improve its chip plant infrastructure. China has a great need for this expertise as U.S. export controls limit its access to higher-end chips. That Taiwanese businesses would support this endeavor, however, is astonishing. It reflects the triumph of grotesque greed over the urgent needs of national security. As a Taiwanese engineering professor told Bloomberg, "The chips from these plants built with Taiwanese companies' help could eventually be used on Chinese missiles aimed at Taiwan. The [Taiwanese] government ... is not being serious about Taiwan's defense if it does not tighten controls on local firms' support for Huawei."

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It beggars belief that Tsai's government was unaware of this activity by prominent Taiwanese industrial interests. Why, then, has the government failed to urgently restrict these companies from providing aid and comfort to the enemy? Why, unless the Taiwanese government does not regard China as its preeminent adversary.

It is, of course, Taipei's absolute democratic right to adopt these stances. But so also do Taiwan's choices toward China demand closer U.S. scrutiny. After all, if Taiwan is disinterested in defending itself from China, how on Earth could any U.S. president justify sending Americans to do so?