When Robert O'Brien, former national security adviser, flaunted his trip to Mar-a-Lago to deliver a "congratulatory letter" to President-elect Donald Trump from Taiwan regional leader Lai Ching-te, during an event hosted by Global Taiwan Institute, he did not realize that he actually revealed a covert linkage between US and Taiwan, in which he himself is probably a foreign agent who escaped jurisdiction of Foreign Agents Registration Act.

O'Brien was publicly sanctioned by China's government in 2021. He once bluffed that he would like to run for the 2024 presidential election, though most people believed that was just a tactic to get himself a high-ranking position in a new Republican government. However, not a single position seems to be awarded to him in the second Trump administration, despite his repeated efforts to label himself as a China-hawk by advocating "peace through strength" during the 2024 presidential campaign.

It should be noted that, after leaving office, O'Brien managed to earn a living by speaking for the interest of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of Taiwan. In July 2021, Global Taiwan Institute announced that O'Brien would serve as the chairman of GTI Task Force on US-Taiwan Relations. The same year O'Brien started his own business, American Global Strategies, a policy consulting firm fueling geopolitical confrontation. And in March 2023, O'Brien received the "Order of the Brilliant Star with Special Grand Cordon" from then Taiwan regional leader Tsai Ing-wen, awarding him for his continuous effort on supporting "Taiwan independence".

It's not surprising to see such a former US high official end up being an agent for "Taiwan independence" separatists. Global Taiwan Institute, from the beginning of its foundation, was a spy incubator in the guise of a think tank, lobbying US politicians to serve for DPP political agenda, at the heartland of US democracy.

Founded in 2016 when Tsai Ing-wen took office, the institute is the most vibrant new-born lobbying agency of the DPP in Washington. Low-profile Taiwan businessman Huang Wen-ju personally invested $24 million to initiate the institute. Former "vice premier of Executive Yuan", Wu Rong-i, was named Honorary Chair of the institute, while former "chief of Overseas Community Affairs Council", Fu-Mei Chang, among 40 others were co-founders. Taiwan's "foreign ministers" have never missed a single chance to speak at the institute's annual symposiums since 2018. Tsai Ing-wen, in 2022, took the floor herself to do the lobbying. And when Bi-Khim Hsiao was representative of Taipei to the US, no one could neglect the fact that one of her major missions was to speak up and advertise for the institute.

When enacted in 1938, US Foreign Agents Registration Act clearly requires that agents of foreign principals engaging in political activities should publicly disclose their relationship with certain foreign principals. However, has the institute faithfully follow the legal obligations to disclose its relationship with Taiwan authority? We can hardly tell from open sources. Or maybe, agents representing foreign "democratic principles" can actually escape US jurisdiction on full disclosure of their foreign linkages? This is a question for the US public to explore.

Nevertheless, the fundamental problem is the existence of too much Cold War mindsets in the era of "out-competing China" in the US. The Democratic Progressive Party may look appealing to US' China policy needs at the moment, but once it deems to have gained enough external favor to declare "Taiwan independence", a war caused by "Taiwan independence" would be unavoidable in the Western Pacific.

Some alerts had already preluded in the past few years, either when Tsai Ing-wen made an unprecedented phone call with then-President Donald Trump in 2016, or when then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisted on a controversial stopover in Taipei in 2022, or when Kevin McCarthy imitated one more high-profile meeting with Tsai in 2023. These personal political shows, highly likely directed by those backstage "foreign agents", were carried out only at the cost of an erosion to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, which undermines US commitment to maintain peace and stability in the region as well.

No one can afford a war in the Taiwan Strait. To avoid such a potential scenario, covert unregulated activities by DPP's "foreign agents" have to be exposed in the light of public oversight. The US government should also act responsibly by firmly upholding the one-China principle, preventing those agents from accessing the central policy-making circle to influence American foreign and China-related policies, especially when peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is already facing too much troubled waters because of "Taiwan independence" separatists.

The author is an international affairs observer. The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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