Taiwan's former President Tsai Ing-wen made her first public appearance in Taiwan on Thursday since returning from a trip to Italy, telling a business audience that the island can no longer settle for being a subject of world affairs and must instead help write the rules of the emerging global order.
Speaking at the Wealth magazine (財訊雙週刊) 2026 Influence Forum, Tsai said Taiwan now sits at the intersection of two critical global systems: the security architecture of the Indo-Pacific and the supply chain underpinning the world's AI and semiconductor industries. "This dual strategic position did not emerge overnight, nor is it the result of any single company or policy," she told the audience. "It is the product of decades of cumulative effort by Taiwan's industrial sector, engineers, workers, entrepreneurs, financiers, and government."
She argued that Taiwan needs more platforms like the forum to project its own thinking abroad, rather than simply reacting to decisions made elsewhere. "Taiwan cannot only be discussed by the world — we must offer our own perspective," she said. "We must bring Taiwan's economic strategic thinking to the international stage so that Tokyo, Singapore, Washington, Europe, and other key markets can hear Taiwan's voice and see Taiwan's judgment."
Guest Appearance Stayed Secret Until Security Screening
The forum had originally been billed with Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) as its headline guest. Instead, attendees only discovered that Tsai would speak when they passed through security checks at the venue entrance. Wealth magazine president Hsieh Chin-ho (謝金河) told the audience in his opening remarks that Tsai had personally asked the organizers not to disclose her attendance in advance.
The appearance capped a busy stretch of travel for the former president. Days earlier, Tsai had traveled to Italy at the invitation of the Global Women Leaders Summit, where she met with sitting and former female heads of state alongside a younger cohort of political and civic leaders. While in Rome, she was received at the Italian Senate by Deputy Speaker Gian Marco Centinaio, a visit she described as a marker of deepening ties between Taipei and Rome. Sitting down with democratic counterparts to discuss Taiwan, the Indo-Pacific, and the shared pressures facing democracies worldwide, she said, was "a very meaningful step."
Tsai Traces Taiwan's Economic Pivot Back to 2016
Much of Tsai's address centered on the structural overhaul she said her administration undertook after she first took office in 2016. At the time, she said, Taiwan's economy was overly reliant on a single export market, industrial upgrading had stalled, investment momentum was weak, and younger workers were growing anxious about their economic future. "It was clear to our governing team at the time that Taiwan could no longer follow its previous path," she said. "We had to reposition ourselves so that Taiwan's industrial foundations could go deeper, become more stable, and reach a position that was increasingly difficult to replace."
To that end, she pointed to a string of initiatives launched during her presidency: the 5+2 Industrial Innovation Plan, the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program, the three-part Invest in Taiwan initiative, the New Southbound Policy aimed at diversifying trade ties across South and Southeast Asia, and a semiconductor talent-training effort built around a dedicated Semiconductor College. She also cited later moves to diversify supply chains as global conditions shifted.
None of it, she said, was meant to produce quick wins. "These policies were not designed to create miracles overnight, but to allow Taiwan's existing strengths to continue evolving in the right direction," Tsai said. "That is why, when the US-China trade war broke out, when the pandemic disrupted global supply chains, and when countries began rethinking security and resilience, Taiwan was able to absorb new demand and hold its ground amid global disruption."
Security and Trust Now Define Taiwan's Supply Chain Role
Tsai told the forum that Taiwan has since built a reputation as a highly trusted partner across semiconductors, AI servers, information and communications technology manufacturing, and critical components — a status she said reflects more than raw production capacity. "The world needs Taiwan not only because Taiwan produces advanced chips, but because Taiwan is a trustworthy democratic partner," she said. "As global supply chains place increasing weight on security and trust, and as AI development demands stable, reliable partners with advanced technical capabilities, Taiwan's importance will become ever clearer."
Governments, she argued, cannot afford to treat that position as fixed or manage it reactively. "Policy must not focus only on short-term numbers," she said. "It must look at where Taiwan needs to stand ten or twenty years from now."
She closed on a note aimed at bolstering public confidence heading into the second half of 2026 and beyond. "The more volatile the global economic landscape, the more composed Taiwan must be. The greater the external challenges, the more united Taiwan must stand," she said. "Taiwan's economic achievements have never been a miracle — they are the result of sustained effort by many people, and of a society that, at critical moments, has chosen the right direction and accepted shared responsibility." Citing the island's technological base, democratic institutions, and social resilience, she said her goal is to ensure "Taiwan's indispensability is not merely today's advantage, but becomes the strength of the next generation." （Related： Tsai Ing-wen's Rome Visit Shows Taiwan Is Winning Hearts in Europe's Parliaments ｜ Latest ）
