UPDATE: Taiwan's USAID Involvement
Is Taiwan Mixed Up With Nefarious American "AID"?
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Updated 7 February 2025 (4 February 2025)
Taiwan's USAID Involvement
Is Taiwan Mixed Up With Nefarious American "AID"?
By Wendell Minnick (Whiskey Mike) 顏文德
TAIPEI -The U.S. de facto embassy in Taipei, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), will have some explaining to do with the new Trump administration regarding DEI and USAID.
AIT’s website still clings to the Rainbow Flag on their website, even though it is clear that the next State Department will have little patience with it.
ABOVE: Screenshot (8 March 2025).
The real concern and/or confusion is USAID’s entanglement with AIT and Taiwan’s International Cooperation and Development Fund (TaiwanICDF).
AIT’s Page on Paraguay and Pacific Island Fund:
U.S.-Taiwan Cooperation on International Development and Humanitarian Assistance
The United States and Taiwan will strengthen their cooperation and collaboration on international development and humanitarian assistance under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO) November 3 [2022]. According to the MOU, which names the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and International Cooperation and Development Fund (TaiwanICDF) as AIT and TECRO’s respective designated representatives, initial areas of cooperation will include international development assistance, humanitarian assistance, promotion of participation and best practices in international fora, research in international development and humanitarian fields, and capacity building, training, and knowledge transfer. The two sides will cooperate though information exchanges, sharing best practices, global activity initiatives, joint studies, and more.
Under a related arrangement between AIT and TECRO, also signed on November 3, USAID and TaiwanICDF will coordinate with Paraguay’s Ministry of Industry and Commerce to strengthen micro, small, and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs) and promote development in Paraguay. As highlighted in the arrangement, both sides believe in the importance of improving market efficiencies, access to resources, and improving MSME policy environments.
Finally, under another related AIT-TECRO arrangement signed on November 3, USAID and TaiwanICDF will work together to enhance climate and disaster resilience in the Pacific region. As part of this MOU, TaiwanICDF will contribute up to US $600,000 to a U.S.-Taiwan partnership under USAID’s Pacific American Fund. The Pacific American Fund supports civil society organizations across the Pacific to advance locally-designed and -led development solutions that increase resilience and improve the livelihoods of Pacific Island communities.
Given the accusations that USAID has been used for everything from CIA operations to DEI initiatives to actually feeding starving people, it is difficult to say what Paraguay or what the Pacific Island Fund got out of the deal.
But I invite you, dear reader, to give me your thoughts.
Drill deep enough and find a spooky or outright outrageous USAID grant for Taiwan, I’ll give you a one-year subscription: LINK.
READER ONE RESPONSE:
Hi Wendell, your recent substack post made me look into USAID spending in Taiwan.
Unfortunately, it looks like the most interesting programs tagged with Taiwan may have been done so in error. [1] Specifically, 1.7 million went through Project Hope to PRC hospitals in Wuhan and Shanghai from 2010 to 2014. Also, from 2001 to 2014, about 3.8 million appears to have gone to building Fudan University a beautiful auditorium and Center for American Studies. [2] Two of the latter's grants are labelled China, so maybe the one labelled Taiwan can be attributed to incompetence. The actual USAID money that went to Taiwan seems to have gone to the Red Cross. Hmm, not too exciting.
On the surface Project Hope seems to be the typical feel-good humanitarian project. I hope all the Chinese people can enjoy healthy lives, but surely by 2010 the CCP was capable of building its own hospitals. The Fudan grants make even less sense. I suppose the grant writers in 2001 believed China would 'liberalize' if we built an academic building for them? Their website explains how, after lobbying for generous help from USAID, Fudan's Center for American Studies went on to cultivate ties with the PLA Academy of Military Sciences, Henry Kissinger, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. LOL. Seems like a great return on investment. [3]
I wonder how these were ever labelled Taiwan -- Project Hope's current website doesn't even claim to serve Taiwan and currently runs offices in Beijing, Shanghai, and Wuhan. [4] The US Consul General that attended the opening of a USAID-funded nursing school probably knew he was in Wuhan. [5]
Outside of USAID I only saw a couple 2-3k appropriations for stuff like 'upholstered furniture.' Meh. The funniest one was the State Department giving 58k to 'Miscellaneous Foreign Awardees' for artwork. [6] Any chance you've seen WHITE GRANITE SCULPTURE TITLED "POSSESSING NUMEROUS PEAKS NO. HCY 1204" BY HUANG ZHI YANG in an AIT waiting room?
[1] https://www.usaspending.gov/search/?hash=e81f0d2deec00b785d2e407c6163936a
[2] https://www.usaspending.gov/search/?hash=d69b63f20a27b3db124786262e7933a2
[3] https://iis.fudan.edu.cn/en/cas/list.htm
[4] https://www.projecthope.org/region/asia/china/
[5] https://en.whu.edu.cn/info/3981/38281.htm
[6] https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_AWD_SAQMMA17M0909_1900_-NONE-_-NONE-/
$600,000? I am reminded of a Doctor Evil scene in one of the Austin Powers movies.