Taiwan Is Ready to Defend Democracy. Is Trump With Us?

I don’t envy American voters. Your presidential choices have an impact halfway across the planet. Your soldiers fight and die in other countries’ wars. I know you’re tired of feeling you have to fix the world’s problems. But like it or not, this unique privilege and responsibility comes with being a citizen of the greatest country in the world.

So spare a thought for one of these faraway places affected by your vote: my island home, Taiwan.

When I was growing up, we idolized America. I loved the idea of it — the land of opportunity and protector of democracy. I inherited this from my father, who was born in Taiwan in 1950, a year after the Chinese civil war forced his family to flee there from mainland China. He grew up in an era when, with the United States as a beacon, Taiwan transformed from dictatorship to democracy. After attending graduate school in Indiana in the 1980s, he returned a certified fanboy of Americana. We watched movies such as “Air Force One” and “Independence Day,” in which U.S. presidents used their fists to defeat America’s enemies and save the world. We ate at TGI Fridays in Taipei to satisfy his craving for a proper American hamburger. He dreamed that I’d someday make a life in America, where he felt that his opinionated only daughter would thrive.

Donald Trump’s return to office is putting our faith in America to the test. He has made clear that, unlike previous presidents, he couldn’t care less about Taiwan and our hard-won democracy. He says we need to pay for protection, even though we already spend billions of dollars a year on U.S. weapon systems. He says — falsely — that Taiwan “stole” America’s chip business, has dismissed us as a geopolitical trifle and expressed doubt about the U.S. being able to defend Taiwan against China.

Maybe this was just campaign bluster, but statements like this carry an existential weight for Taiwan’s 24 million residents. As China’s economic might has grown, we have been left with fewer and fewer allies in the world, relying on our informal but strong relationship with America for survival.

Are we on our own now? Mr. Trump makes me yearn for those action-hero commanders in chief that Dad and I rooted for.

Sure, we’re just a small island thousands of miles away across the Pacific. But from humble, war-torn beginnings, we blossomed into a bright spot for democracy and human rights in a part of the world where these things are in short supply. Before the “Made in China” label was slapped on the world’s products, there was “Made in Taiwan.” It was once shorthand for cheap plastic goods, but in my lifetime we’ve turned it into a badge of honor. Taiwan now produces 90 percent of the world’s most advanced semiconductors, the essential commodity of the digital age. We gave the world boba tea, cat cafes and Nymphia Wind, the first Asian winner of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” You’re welcome.