Jacob Ogles
Ballard Partners picked up Taiwan’s embassy as a client as lawmakers in Congress rally around the (de facto) nation.
Founder Brian Ballard, a top fundraiser for President Donald Trump in all three presidential campaigns, filed a disclosure showing his firm signed the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States, which bills itself as the Embassy for Taiwan and the Republic of China.
Filings required by the Foreign Agents Registration Act show Ballard Partners was engaged by the Embassy’s Executive Officer Jerry Yuchieh Wang, along with Director of the Political Division Gervasio Hsu and Deputy Chief of Mission Andrea Yang.
The six-month, $60,000-a-month contract, effective May 13, calls on Ballard Partners to provide strategic communications and other consulting services. Yang and Ballard signed the contract.
“The registrant will advocate on the foreign principal’s behalf before U.S. government officials and decision makers,” disclosures show.
The hire comes as tensions between Taiwan and China rise. The island of Taiwan, technically a part of China, has continued for decades to govern itself independently and engage the world economically, as noted by the Council on Foreign Relations.
But Taiwan has increasingly sought to assert its independence, including by opening embassies in nations around the world. The Washington embassy has operated since 1979. In March, it opened a new office in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
However, China has pressured international countries not to recognize Taiwan’s embassies. It issued a warning, for example, to neighboring India when an embassy opened in Taiwan while praising South Africa for pressuring Taiwan to close an embassy in Pretoria, as reported by the South China Morning Post.
Florida lawmakers in Congress have regularly encouraged U.S. support of Taiwan. Sen. Rick Scott, a Naples Republican, introduced a bipartisan bill earlier this month that would streamline the delivery of weapons to Taiwan should the island need to defend itself against military aggression from mainland China.
