TAIPEI, Taiwan—When Hsiao Bi-khim set off for Washington six years ago, the newly minted Taiwanese envoy needed something to challenge China’s menacing “wolf warriors.”

Hsiao forged her own brand, that of a “cat warrior”—nimble, adaptive, always alert, and most importantly, with an indelible independent streak.

Six years later, Hsiao is the second most powerful person in Taiwan, and the moniker appears to have weathered well.

“Cats cannot be coerced,” she said. “They have a mind of their own.”

Hsiao said the island nation is similar.

“Taiwan can be soft and warm and cuddly,” the vice president told The Epoch Times’ “American Thought Leaders” during an interview at the presidential palace. “But at the same time, it’s important to keep our claws sharp in order to defend ourselves.”

Applied to diplomacy, Hsiao said, that means a lot of balancing and finding common interests—and in the context of U.S.–Taiwan relations, forging consensus across the political spectrum in the U.S. Congress.

By leveraging their strengths, Taipei and Washington become force multipliers to each other, she said.

“That’s where the attraction is, and that’s where Taiwan and the United States are so much stronger together,” Hsiao said.

Beijing’s Threats, Taken in Stride

Born in Japan to a Presbyterian minister from Taiwan and a music teacher from North Carolina, Hsiao said she remembers acting as a bridge as soon as she could talk, translating between grandmothers who spoke different languages.

She entered politics at the age of 24. Within six years, she had won a seat in Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan, becoming one of the youngest lawmakers at the time.

While serving in the legislature together back in 2006, Hsiao and current Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te backed a resolution calling for an international investigation into Beijing’s state-sponsored forced organ harvesting, a story that The Epoch Times broke weeks earlier.

As Taiwan’s first medical doctor-turned-president, Lai is “very committed to these basic rights,” Hsiao said.

As Hsiao rose to prominence, Beijing called her a “die-hard” separatist, accusing her of “colluding with the United States” to seek Taiwanese independence. The regime twice put her on its blacklist.

Hsiao said these were intimidation tactics.

“We will not let the Communist Party of China define who we are,” she said.

Hsiao doesn’t have any personal business in China, so the sanctions are merely symbolic. Try as it may, Beijing can’t stop her efforts to defend Taiwan and the values it stands for, she said.

Threats are a regular part of Taiwanese life, and they’re intensifying by the day.

The Chinese regime, which views Taiwan as a renegade province, has been harassing the island with warplanes on a near-daily basis.

Beijing routinely blocks Taipei from participating in international forums. It lures the island nation’s diplomatic allies away with cash and lavish promises, keen to further isolate Taiwan on the world stage.

Small Size, Big Role

Despite a population of a little more than 23 million, Taiwan punches far above its weight in the global marketplace.

Known as “the Silicon Island,” it produces nearly two-thirds of the world’s microchips—and nearly all of the advanced ones—making Taiwan an irreplaceable component in the modern digital economy.

Last year, Taiwan overtook Germany as the United States’ fourth-largest trading partner.

Absent a formal alliance, close U.S.–Taiwan ties have survived successive administrations, ensuring peace in the Taiwan Strait—a critical artery for global commerce—in the face of an aggressive China. Goods worth trillions of dollars move through the roughly 110-mile-wide waterway each year.

Hsiao called the relationship “one of the most consequential partnerships in the world.”

“It is a partnership that has enabled the world to prosper,” she said.

It has also been expanding. Taipei and Washington in January announced a massive chips deal that lowers significant trade barriers and injects a $250 billion Taiwanese investment into U.S. semiconductor and energy infrastructure.

—Eva Fu; Stacy Robinson

BOOKMARKS

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that he’ll keep troops in Lebanon as long as he deems necessary. “My directive, along with that of the Minister of Defense, to the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] is clear and has not changed,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.

Argentina’s Lionel Messi has scored his 17th goal in the football World Cup—a world record. Check out Aaron Gifford’s latest to hear how that game went down.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has signed four new bills that prevent elected officials from taking office before the results are certified. Find out what’s in those bills by reading Chase Smith’s latest.

A group of Native Americans in Arizona is suing to stop parts of the border wall from being built on their reservation. “The Nation understands that construction of the wall would entail significant devastation on the reservation, including the destruction of mountain peaks sacred to the O’odham,” the suit says.

—Stacy Robinson