Taiwan yesterday hailed France’s pledge to safeguard freedom of navigation in the Taiwan Strait a day after French President Emmanuel Macron signed into law the nation’s largest defense budget increase in more than 50 years.
The French Parliament on July 12 and 13 passed a 413 billion euros (US$453 billion) defense budget for the next seven years, which would push France’s military spending to more than 2 percent of GDP by 2025.
The budget bill — which was spurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s aggressive stance in Asia — said that France is an Indo-Pacific power, and has an obligation to defend freedom of navigation in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.
Photo: AFP
As the only EU member with territories in the Indo-Pacific, France has a duty to uphold the rights of all nations to freely use the seas in the region, French Senator Olivier Cadic, one of the bill sponsors, said during deliberations.
Beijing’s provocative actions — including its efforts to seize international seas as its own, its harassment of legal fishing operations, construction of military bases and incursions into other nations’ sovereign waters — are to blame for the surge in regional tensions in the past few years, Cadic said.
China not only turned a deaf ear to the rulings of international courts with regard to its claims in the South China Sea, but also claims the Taiwan Strait, which poses a direct threat to global trade and maritime transportation, he said.
Beijing’s predatory acts and ever-growing military power means that a move by China to invade Taiwan would trigger a significant crisis, comparable to the Russa-Ukraine war, Cadic said, urging France to contribute to protecting freedom of navigation at sea.
In Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Paris has significant influence over the Indo-Pacific region, and reiterated the importance of preserving peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait at this year’s G7 summit and other multilateral international events.
The French government’s defense budget indicates a recognition that protecting peace in the Taiwan Strait is aligned with its strategic national interests, and is essential to a free, open and prosperous Indo-Pacific region, the ministry said.
Taiwan would continue to work with France and other like-minded countries to defend the rules-based international order, it said.
Separately, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said the defense budget’s reference to security in the Strait was a first in French law and was a declaration of intent.
The alliance of democracies has reached a consensus that it should maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, as regional unrest would have global repercussions to the shared interests of its members, Wang said.
DPP Legislator Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應) thanked the French parliament for passing the bill, adding that a military crisis between Taiwan and China would have unbearable consequences for the world.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday said it is closely monitoring developments in Venezuela, and would continue to cooperate with democratic allies and work together for regional and global security, stability, and prosperity. The remarks came after the US on Saturday launched a series of airstrikes in Venezuela and kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was later flown to New York along with his wife. The pair face US charges related to drug trafficking and alleged cooperation with gangs designated as terrorist organizations. Maduro has denied the allegations. The ministry said that it is closely monitoring the political and economic situation
UNRELENTING: China attempted cyberattacks on Taiwan’s critical infrastructure 2.63 million times per day last year, up from 1.23 million in 2023, the NSB said China’s cyberarmy has long engaged in cyberattacks against Taiwan’s critical infrastructure, employing diverse and evolving tactics, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said yesterday, adding that cyberattacks on critical energy infrastructure last year increased 10-fold compared with the previous year. The NSB yesterday released a report titled Analysis on China’s Cyber Threats to Taiwan’s Critical Infrastructure in 2025, outlining the number of cyberattacks, major tactics and hacker groups. Taiwan’s national intelligence community identified a large number of cybersecurity incidents last year, the bureau said in a statement. China’s cyberarmy last year launched an average of 2.63 million intrusion attempts per day targeting Taiwan’s critical
‘SLICING METHOD’: In the event of a blockade, the China Coast Guard would intercept Taiwanese ships while its navy would seek to deter foreign intervention China’s military drills around Taiwan this week signaled potential strategies to cut the nation off from energy supplies and foreign military assistance, a US think tank report said. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted what it called “Justice Mission 2025” exercises from Monday to Tuesday in five maritime zones and airspace around Taiwan, calling them a warning to “Taiwanese independence” forces. In a report released on Wednesday, the Institute for the Study of War said the exercises effectively simulated blocking shipping routes to major port cities, including Kaohsiung, Keelung and Hualien. Taiwan would be highly vulnerable under such a blockade, because it
Conflict with Taiwan could leave China with “massive economic disruption, catastrophic military losses, significant social unrest, and devastating sanctions,” a US think tank said in a report released on Monday. The German Marshall Fund released a report titled If China Attacks Taiwan: The Consequences for China of “Minor Conflict” and “Major War” Scenarios. The report details the “massive” economic, military, social and international costs to China in the event of a minor conflict or major war with Taiwan, estimating that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could sustain losses of more than half of its active-duty ground forces, including 100,000 troops. Understanding Chinese
RSS