Why a Taiwan Invasion Would Trigger Trillions in Global Losses | Amb. Alexander Yui
American Thought Leaders
The Epoch Times
4.9 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 2 May 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
An island nation only one-third the size of Virginia, Taiwan produces more than 90 percent of the world’s most advanced chips and more than 90 percent of the servers powering the AI revolution. And last year, Taiwan became the United States’ fourth-largest trading partner—after Mexico, Canada, and China.
More than one-fifth of global maritime trade goes through the Taiwan Strait, according to a Center for Strategic and International Studies analysis, and any conflict over Taiwan would be devastating for the global economy—and likely far worse than the economic disruptions caused by the Iran War.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has told the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to be ready for a successful Taiwan invasion by 2027, the PLA’s 100th anniversary.
In this episode, I sit down with Taiwan’s representative to the United States, Ambassador Alexander Yui, to understand why Taiwan matters and what’s at stake as the Chinese Communist Party has ramped up its campaign to isolate, intimidate, and encircle Taiwan in recent years.
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te’s recent visit to Eswatini—Taiwan’s only African ally—had to be abruptly postponed when Seychelles, Madagascar, and Mauritius revoked overflight permissions—presumably due to pressure from Beijing.
“They are constantly harassing our naval and air surroundings, trying to create panic and uneasiness,” Yui says.
Since 2013, Beijing has built more than two dozen militarized outposts in disputed waters in the South China Sea and has recently been militarizing yet another artificial island known as Antelope Reef.
Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Taiwan, it's an island nation one-third of the size of Virginia, yet it produces over 90% |
| 0:06.6 | of the world's most advanced chips and more than 90% of the servers powering the AI revolution. |
| 0:12.9 | And last year, it became America's fourth largest trading partner. |
| 0:17.4 | The Taiwan states itself, any conflict in that straits, you will cause a crisis much larger |
| 0:23.1 | than what is happening on Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. |
| 0:25.5 | It's in the trillions and trillions of dollars. |
| 0:27.9 | In this episode, I'm sitting down with Taiwan's representative to the United States, Ambassador |
| 0:32.6 | Alexander Yi, to understand why Taiwan matters and what's at stake as the Chinese Communist Party ramps up its campaign to isolate, intimidate, and encircle Taiwan. |
| 0:43.4 | That's only the part that you see, which is the military part, but PRC has been also using other means, |
| 0:49.2 | raise on tactics, using disinformation, cyber attacks, and other means to try to destabilize tyrant from within. |
| 0:56.5 | That's just an example of what we face, but they do that to other parties, including the United States. |
| 1:02.1 | This is American Thought Leaders, and I'm Yankee Kelleck. |
| 1:07.6 | Ambassador Alexander Yi, such a pleasure to have you on American Thought Leaders. |
| 1:11.6 | Thank you, for having me on your show. |
| 1:13.7 | Xi Jinping, the leader of communist China, has said that he wants the People's Liberation Army |
| 1:21.3 | to be ready to invade Taiwan in 27. |
| 1:25.9 | There have been recent actions by the United States in Venezuela, very significant. |
| 1:30.3 | In Iran, there's still an Iran war happening. It's in a ceasefire at the moment. |
| 1:36.3 | But the question here is, have there been any recalculations in your mind in the PRC, what is Xi Jinping thinking? How is this affecting |
| 1:48.1 | things? Are there any changes? Well, of course, they are. And I want to point out that, as China |
| 1:55.8 | has mentioned to the United States, that Taiwan is the greatest risk factor between the relations between |
| 2:02.0 | China and the United States. Actually, I believe that it's the other way, that the people |
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