Former Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen is using her first visit to the United States since leaving office to highlight Taiwan’s growing role at the intersection of technology, national security, and defense innovation. Tsai arrived in California this week ahead of an Oct. 7 appearance at Stanford University’s fourth annual Stanford DEFCON Technology and National Security Conference, where she was invited to deliver the opening keynote address.
The conference, organized by Stanford’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, brings together figures from academia, government, the defense sector, and technology industries to examine emerging technologies and their implications for national security. Topics include AI, autonomous systems, space technology, and other technologies shaping modern warfare and defense planning.
Tsai’s office said her remarks would draw on Taiwan’s experience and emphasize the self-ruling island’s role in critical technology and democratic resilience. The visit marks Tsai’s first trip to the United States since completing two presidential terms in May 2024. Since leaving office, she has made several visits to Europe and Canada aimed at maintaining Taiwan’s international relationships.
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After arriving in California, Tsai wrote on Facebook that she had landed safely and was welcomed by members of the Taiwanese community. “As soon as I got off the plane, I could feel everyone’s overwhelming enthusiasm,” she wrote. “Thank you to the friends who came especially to welcome me, and thank you all for your concern and support for Taiwan along the way.”
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She added that she planned to “seize every opportunity” during the trip to meet more people and “make more friends for Taiwan.”
From security partner to tech contributor
Analysts say Tsai’s participation at Stanford carries significance because the forum sits at the intersection of national security, Silicon Valley technology, and other emerging defense industries. Unlike more traditional overseas appearances centered on think tanks, diaspora groups, or legislative diplomacy, Stanford DEFCON focuses heavily on how technological innovation can be translated into national-security capabilities.
That makes Taiwan particularly relevant. The island remains central to the global semiconductor ecosystem and has deep expertise in advanced electronics, precision manufacturing, sensors, information technology, and systems integration–capabilities increasingly important as defense industries shift toward unmanned platforms, artificial intelligence, secure communications, and distributed systems.
An international affairs expert cited by CNA argued that Tsai’s presence underscores Taiwan’s “irreplaceable strategic position” in critical technologies, semiconductor supply-chain security, and U.S.-Taiwan defense cooperation.
The broader argument is that U.S.-Taiwan cooperation is moving beyond traditional geopolitical coordination and arms procurement toward deeper links involving defense technology and industrial supply chains.
Defense policy shaped during Tsai’s presidency
Tsai’s invitation also reflects policies pursued during her eight years in office. Her administration expanded Taiwan’s domestic defense industry, including indigenous aircraft and submarine programs, while promoting greater investment in missiles, drones, asymmetric warfare, and military modernization.
Taiwan also extended mandatory military service from four months to one year and created the All-Out Defense Mobilization Agency as part of efforts to strengthen reserve and civil-defense capacity. Those initiatives coincided with a growing emphasis in Washington on asymmetric capabilities, with systems designed to be mobile, survivable, relatively inexpensive, and difficult for a larger adversary to neutralize.
Tsai has continued emphasizing that theme during her Stanford trip. Speaking at a VIP dinner ahead of the conference, she said Taiwan must devote additional effort and resources to defense while building stronger relationships with international partners. A strong Taiwanese defense capability, she said, is essential to maintaining regional stability.
Though Taiwan operates as an independent nation since its establishment in 1949, Beijing views the island as a “breakaway province,” and has vowed to reclaim it by any means necessary, even if that means resorting to military force to achieve unification under its “One China” policy.
Supply chains emerge as a strategic issue
The technology dimension has become increasingly important as governments reassess the security of global supply chains. Modern defense systems depend heavily on advanced semiconductors, optical sensors, software, AI, communications systems, and other technologies in which Taiwanese manufacturers play significant roles.
Taiwan’s importance to that ecosystem extends well beyond defense. AMD chief executive Lisa Su said during a visit to Taiwan this week that the island remains “absolutely critical” to the semiconductor supply chain and “very, very critical” to AMD.
For analysts following Tsai’s Stanford appearance, that industrial capacity creates an opportunity for Taiwan to position itself not simply as a partner whose security requires outside assistance, but as a contributor to the technological and manufacturing infrastructure underpinning security cooperation among democratic countries.
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