Taiwan would not collapse like Afghanistan in the event of an attack, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said yesterday, offering an indirect warning to China not to be “deluded” into thinking it could take Taiwan.
China has been ramping up military and diplomatic pressure to force Taipei into accepting Chinese sovereignty, causing concern in Washington and other Western capitals.
The defeat of the Afghan government after the withdrawal of US forces and flight of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has sparked discussion in Taiwan about what would happen in the event of a Chinese invasion, and whether the US would help defend Taiwan.
Photo: CNA
Asked whether the president or premier would flee if “the enemy was at the gates” like in Afghanistan, Su said people had feared neither arrest nor death when Taiwan was a dictatorship under martial law.
“Today, there are powerful countries that want to swallow up Taiwan using force, and likewise we are also not afraid of being killed or imprisoned,” he said. “We must guard this country and this land, and not be like certain people who always talk up the enemy’s prestige and talk down our resolve.”
What happened in Afghanistan showed that if a country is in internal chaos, no outside help would make a difference, and Taiwanese have to believe in their land and that they can defend it, Su added.
Everyone working together to rapidly bring under control a recent domestic spike in COVID-19 infections showed what can be achieved when Taiwan is united, he said.
“We also tell foreign forces who want to invade and grab Taiwan — don’t be deluded,” Su added, apparently referring to China.
In related news, Taiwan’s two largest airlines yesterday said that flights to and from Europe would circumvent the airspace in Afghanistan.
China Airlines Ltd (中華航空) said that all cargo and passenger flights to and from Europe would fly through Siberia or other alternative routes after bypassing the airspace in Afghanistan.
EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) said it would enforce the same air safety policy, which would affect all of its flights to and from Amsterdam, London, Vienna and Paris.
Airlines in recent years have bypassed airspace above war zones and politically unstable nations following a couple of major aviation incidents.
On July 17, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down by a ground-to-air missile while flying over eastern Ukraine, killing 298 people aboard.
On Jan. 8 last year, Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 from Tehran to Kiev was hit by two missiles fired by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards shortly after takeoff from Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport. All 167 passengers and eight crew members died.
Additional reporting by Shelley Shan
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
RSS