TAIWAN PERSPECTIVE

Taiwan does not lack oil—not yet. But plastic bags, yes. Taipei Times reveals that the cost of 3-liter bags has doubled, from 4-5 to 8-10 Taiwan dollars, due to ethylene shortage, a petroleum derivative. Prime Minister Cho Jung-tai ordered CPC Corp (the state oil company) to increase from 60,000 to 79,000-80,000 tons of ethylene per month and asked Formosa Petrochemical to increase as well, but the latter replies it "cannot increase that much."

In a broader piece on Trump's frustration with allies, Taipei Times frames the oil crisis through a Taiwanese lens: American gas prices at 4 dollars per gallon for the first time since 2022, over 3,000 deaths, the Hormuz closure. But the unspoken is more interesting than the spoken: neither article mentions China, even though Beijing is the main buyer of oil transiting Hormuz.

This silence is strategic. Taiwan reads every crisis through its own existential vulnerability: if the Strait of Hormuz can be closed, so can the Taiwan Strait. The subtext of Taiwan's coverage is not "oil is expensive" but "straits are weapons." The ethylene shortage is an economic detail; the Hormuz precedent is a strategic nightmare.