Countries in the region would be China’s next targets should Beijing seize Taiwan, President William Lai (賴清德) said in an interview published yesterday, as he insisted that Taiwan must dramatically shore up its defenses.
Lai said he was confident the legislature would approve a NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.73 billion) special defense budget to fund crucial defense purchases, including weapons from the US.
The US would stand by Taiwan and would not need to use it as a “bargaining chip” with Beijing, he said.
Photo: Yu Chen Cheng, AFP
If China were to take Taiwan, Beijing would become “more aggressive, undermining peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region and the rules-based international order,” he said.
“If Taiwan were annexed by China, China’s expansionist ambitions would not stop there,” he said on Tuesday at the Presidential Office in Taipei.
“The next countries under threat would be Japan, the Philippines and others in the Indo-Pacific region, with repercussions eventually reaching the Americas and Europe,” he said.
Photo: Yu Chen Cheng, AFP
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, whose country hosts several US bases and about 60,000 US troops, in November said that an attack on Taiwan could threaten Japan’s survival, triggering a military response, which drew a furious response from Beijing.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has also warned that the archipelago nation, where US troops have access to nine military bases, would “inevitably” be dragged into a war over Taiwan.
“In this changing world, nations belong to a global community — a situation in any one country would inevitably impact another,” Lai said.
Ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing in April, Lai said Taiwan welcomed any talks that help maintain the “status quo.”
“We believe President Trump is undertaking a difficult peace-building effort, which entails safeguarding US interests and deterring Chinese expansionism in the short term,” he said, adding that the US does not need to “to frame Taiwan as a bargaining chip in any discussions with China.”
“In the context of US-China trade competition, China seeks far more from the US than the US does from China,” he said.
Xi’s recent purge of top generals has sparked speculation about what it might mean for Beijing’s timeline to potentially attack Taiwan, which some US officials have suggested could be next year.
While the removal of many generals was “indeed an unusual situation,” Lai said it did not change Taiwan’s need to be prepared.
“We must have the capability to deter China’s aggression at any time,” Lai said. “We want to ensure that, for China, there is never a day that is a good day to invade Taiwan.”
Trump’s efforts to force Taiwanese chipmakers to increase production capacity in the US and his insistence that Taipei spend more on defense have fueled concerns about his willingness to protect the nation.
Taiwan has invested billions upgrading its military and expanding its defense industry, but its forces would be outnumbered and outgunned in a conflict with China.
Under intense US pressure, Lai has vowed to increase Taiwan’s defense spending to more than 3 percent of GDP this year and 5 percent by 2030.
The Executive Yuan’s special defense budget would include spending over eight years that would fund, among other things, a multilayered air defense system dubbed the “T-Dome.”
However, legislation to enable the spending has been blocked 10 times since early December by opposition parties, which hold the most seats in the legislature.
Despite the delays, Lai expressed optimism that the budget would win approval.
“In a democratic society, every political party is ultimately accountable to the people,” he said. “I am therefore confident that this budget will win their support.”
“Taiwan is responsible for safeguarding our own country,” Lai said, adding that Taiwan-US relations are “rock solid.”
Taiwan, which makes nearly all of the world’s most advanced chips, is also eager to “work with Europe on joint development in AI [artificial intelligence] and usher in an era of comprehensive smart transformation,” he said.
However, for Taiwan to remain indispensable in the global supply chain, the nation’s semiconductor industry needs to keep its “centers for research and development, the most advanced manufacturing processes and the largest production capacity,” he said.
“No single country in this supply chain can be missing,” Lai said. “For this reason, the Taiwanese government supports the semiconductor industry’s investments in Japan, the US and Europe.”
Beijing condemned Lai’s remarks, calling him a “peace disruptor, crisis creator and war instigator.”
“Seeking independence through external means and resisting reunification by force is like an ant trying to shake a tree — doomed to failure,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lin Jian (林劍) told a regular briefing.
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