The Taipei 101 skyscraper commands the urban landscape in Taipei, Taiwan. [Photo/Xinhua.

After hearing a report on the impacts of the United States' tariffs on Taiwanlast week, the island's Democratic Progressive Party authorities leader LaiChing-te suggested the island should 'depart from the Chinese economy forthe Global North'.

With this whimsical idea, the secessionist-minded DPp leader actually wantecto indicate Taiwan should rely more on the United States so it can decouple itseconomy from that of the Chinese mainland. Something that accords with hislong-term aim of 'desinicizing' the island's economy by building 'non-red'supply chains with the US,

So the 'Global North' here, as some Taiwan observers pointed out, is only a'fig leaf' exposing Lai's embarrassment at the fact the US has not extendedany special treatment to the island in the universal trade war it has launchedThe idea actually originates from Lai's old tune of relying on the US to resistthe Chinese mainland. But the 32 percent tariff hikes the US administrationthreatened to impose on the island severely slapped the DPp leader in the faceDespite the US administration's 90-day suspension of its additional tariffsagainst multiple economies, including Taiwan, the island is still subject to anadditional 10 percent tariff from the US,The Lai authorities have announced plans to provide assistance of NT$88bilion ($2.72 billion), which, based on Taiwan's exports of goods to the US ofmore than $110 billion last year, will not help the island's exporters offset thedamages inflicted by the US'tariffs, which could hit $37 billion in totalaccording to the estimates of some analystsThe US' tariff war presented the island with an opportunity to reset its cross-Strait economic and trade cooperation that has been unavoidably affected bythe DPP authorities' 'pro-independence' policy since they took power in 2016.The island's residents can see clearly that the US is unreliable as either asecurity partner or a trading partner. While the mainland has consistentlyshown that it not only cares about the island's peace and prosperity, but it isalso the 'anchor of stability'in an uncertain world by offering a fair anopredictable business environment.

It can be seen that the mainland, a market accounting for about 40 percent ofthe island's exports compared with the US' 15 percent, has long been thelargest source of Taiwan's trade surplus and the largest stabilizer for Taiwan tomaintain trade balance.

Despite the DPp authorities suppression, the cross-Strait trade volumereached $292.97 billion last year, a year-on-year increase of 9.4 percentthanks to the mainland's pro-trade and pro-cooperation efforts. In the first twomonths, the cross-Strait trade ushered in a good start to the year, with anamount of $43.18 billion, a year-on-year increase of 8.8 percent in spite of thestrong headwinds blown by the USJapan has seen China replace the US as its largest trading partner since 2022China has been the largest export market for the Republic of Korea for manyyears. And a similar trend, which will only to be strengthened by the US' tariffwar, is also observed with some major European economies.The Lai authorities' de facto push to try and 'depart from the mainlandeconomy for the Global North' not only violates market law, as the island'sexports to the US and the mainland vary structurally, but also goes against theactual trend of the Global North. lt is doomed to failure.