00:00David Lee, a former foreign minister and secretary-general to President Tsai Ing-wen,
00:05has released a new memoir.
00:07In it, he describes the decision-making process behind the 2022 Taiwan visit of then-U.S.
00:13House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
00:14At the launch of Lee's book, Tsai and another former foreign minister, Frederick Chen,
00:43also praised Lee's low-key pragmatism as the steady force Taiwan needs to safeguard its national interests.
00:52For an inside look at Taiwan's foreign policy and diplomatic situation,
00:55Isabel Wang spoke to Lee, who also served as Taiwan's foreign minister and headed the National Security Council.
01:02We actually held several leadership roles, not only in foreign service but also in public service.
01:08I'm interested in knowing what is your definition of diplomacy?
01:12Diplomacy is an art, not a science.
01:18Diplomacy involves a lot of negotiation, reconciliation,
01:25so a skill which demands a lot of the recent President Trump's terminology is the art of the deal.
01:35To serve as a country's diplomat, you have to represent your country well and also to serve your country's national interests.
01:45Or we may say that to maximize the interest of your own country.
01:50In your book, you mention a part that we want to avoid Taiwan become a collateral damage in the U.S.-China conversations.
01:59So in the future, do you think we are likely to become that collateral damage?
02:04All in all, I still consider my motto, prudence and moderation are very important principles in conducting our relations with the United States.
02:18You have to think through all the consequences, all the options.
02:26You have to be very cautious, very prudent.
02:29And most of the time, I would say that to choose something in the middle.
02:39That's the reason I use the word of moderation is relatively the better choice.
02:46Decision-making is a very difficult job because most of the decisions are made like, you know, to make a choice in the fog, in the mist.
03:05So I myself want to serve as secretary general to the president.
03:12My job was to formulate some options for the president to choose.
03:19Sometimes she would ask me which choice will be the best.
03:23I always choose the moderate one.
03:25I like the way that you mentioned being prudent and moderation.
03:29But we're in the Trump 2.0 era right now.
03:32Everything is very hard to predict.
03:34How would you say that the Taiwanese officials, when they're dealing with the United States or the Trump administration, what should they keep in mind?
03:41It's only five months since President Trump took over.
03:48In my view, it's still very difficult to read how is he going to conduct relations with Taiwan.
03:58But based on the experience of the past month, I think President Trump is
04:02a great dealer, deal maker, as he called himself, a grand deal maker.
04:11So I think he understands the strategic importance of Taiwan, you know, in terms of our strategic location,
04:22in terms of the importance of Taiwan in the high-tech supply chain and others.
04:29So I'm pretty confident that we'll be able to maintain good relations with President Trump's administration.
04:42So I believe that President Trump will keep us in peace in the rest of three years and seven months.
04:54That's my reading.
04:55But some may say that there's the potential of 2027 Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
05:03Would that probably become like the next Taiwan Strait crisis in your point of view?
05:07It's only because of Xi Jinping told the People's Liberation Army to be ready
05:14to have the capability to invade. That's the timeline set by Xi Jinping to the PLA.
05:23It doesn't mean that we will have a crisis by 2027.
05:28So it's a man-made hypothetical date line. And at that time will be still President Trump
05:40in the White House. I believe that he has the talent and skill to manage the relationship with Beijing.
05:52That was former senior Taiwanese official David Lee. And you can watch the full interview
05:58on Zoom In, Zoom Out. New episodes air every Tuesday and Thursday.
