Japan would likely come to Taiwan’s aid if China attacks, Japanese State Minister of Defense Toshiro Ino told the Telegraph in an interview published on Sunday.
“If people all over the world have the will to support Taiwan, similar to the way they supported Ukraine when we witnessed Russia’s aggression, then, yes, it would be very possible that we will provide some kind of support to Taiwan,” Ino was quoted as saying
“I am not sure at this juncture whether it is going to be defense equipment support or whether it is going to be logistics support,” he said, adding that it would need the consensus of the Japanese public.
Photo: Reuters
However, Japanese officials are alarmed by the parallels that can be drawn between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Beijing’s provocative behavior over Taiwan and in the region’s waters, he said.
Japan has boosted its defense budget by 60 percent over the next five years in response to Beijing’s rapid military build-up under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), Ino said.
“We consider it a threat that China is increasing its military budget and it is sharply increasing its assertiveness in the maritime zones. So far, we have not seen this level of threat before,” he said.
Tokyo has learned from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s disastrous war in Ukraine that it must strengthen its defense capabilities to effectively deter China’s ambitions over Taiwan while focusing on “constructive dialogue” to pre-empt Beijing from escalating, he said.
“We think it is important to demonstrate that it will be difficult to invade Taiwan or make an aggressive move against Taiwan through military means,” Ino said.
If the US is to mount an armed response to a Chinese attempt to take over Taiwan by force, it would almost certainly do so from the various military bases in nearby Japan, he said.
This means Tokyo would have to decide whether to approve Washington’s use of the bases in an active conflict, which might prompt Beijing to attack Japanese territory, Ino said.
Japan would also face the choice of directly joining the fight, in which case Tokyo would seek “maximum support” from allies, including the US and the UK, he said.
“The security environment of the world is becoming the most complicated in its history,” Ino said, referring to the rising belligerence of regional neighbors Russia, China and North Korea.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
‘COMING MENACINGLY’: The CDC advised wearing a mask when visiting hospitals or long-term care centers, on public transportation and in crowded indoor venues Hospital visits for COVID-19 last week increased by 113 percent to 41,402, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, as it encouraged people to wear a mask in three public settings to prevent infection. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said weekly hospital visits for COVID-19 have been increasing for seven consecutive weeks, and 102 severe COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths were confirmed last week, both the highest weekly numbers this year. CDC physician Lee Tsung-han (李宗翰) said the youngest person hospitalized due to the disease this year was reported last week, a one-month-old baby, who does not
RSS