Taiwan must prepare for war, while seeking cross-strait peace, Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) told a forum in New York on Monday.
Ko, who is expected to run as the TPP’s candidate in next year’s presidential election, was speaking at an event hosted by Columbia University’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute.
During his speech, titled “The Rise of the Third Force in Taiwan,” Ko described China as a “neighbor that needs to be dealt with.”
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
To achieve cross-strait peace, communication and exchanges are needed to avoid accidentally sparking a war, the former Taipei mayor said.
However, Taiwan should still prepare for war, and not stake its future on the benevolence of its enemy, Ko said.
“Only by preparing for war and being able to fight can we not be afraid of war,” he said, adding that Taiwan should still bolster its self-defense capabilities.
While Taiwan is a democracy that shares common values with the US and stands by its side, it should do so in a way that is not hostile to China, he said.
Ninety percent of Taiwanese favor maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, meaning “no unification, no independence and no use of force,” he said.
“At this current stage, Taiwanese can decide their own affairs. That shows Taiwan’s autonomy,” Ko said.
China’s military exercises in response to a meeting between President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California last week were “the tail wagging the dog,” as rising nationalist sentiment in China compelled Beijing to respond with military drills, he said.
China, as a world power, should have greater confidence in itself and not resort to military exercises to show off its strength, he said.
China on Saturday launched three days of air and sea exercises near Taiwan. On Monday alone, 91 Chinese military aircraft were detected around Taiwan in a 12-hour period, the highest single-day total of such sorties since the Ministry of National Defense began regularly releasing data on them in 2020.
Ko is scheduled to leave New York for Boston today, where he would remain until Saturday, before visiting Washington until Thursday next week, local media reports said.
His last stop would be Houston, where he would stay until April 27 to meet with more business representatives and members of the overseas Taiwanese community, reports said.
The TPP previously said that while visiting the US, Ko would be introduced as the party’s presidential candidate.
Presidential hopefuls often travel abroad prior to the start of campaigning, mostly to the US, to establish foreign policy credentials.
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