The diversion of US military aid to Ukraine has left it incapable of helping Taiwan repel a Chinese invasion, US Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance said in a Webcast interview with YouTuber Shawn Ryan on Thursday.
Vance, who is the running mate of former US president Donald Trump on the Republican ticket, slammed US President Biden’s policy to support Kyiv’s fight against the Russian invasion.
“I think [Washington] has left Taiwan in a really crappy position, because we sent all our weapons to Ukraine,” Vance said.
Photo: Screen grab from Shawn Ryan Show’s YouTube channel
“I do not know that [Taiwan] could repel a Chinese invasion right now, and so do the Chinese,” he added.
Beijing would eventually make a “real military move” on Taiwan “sooner rather than later,” Vance said, adding that China has not yet attacked Taiwan for a range of reasons, including a desire to avoid taking heavy casualties and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) potentially weakened position.
“Even in a relatively weakened position, [invading Taiwan] is not an easy military maneuver, so maybe the Chinese do not want to kill a lot of people, especially their own people, that maybe destabilizes them,” he said.
Xi might not be in as strong a political position as he had been five years ago, but his hand could improve five years from now, Vance said.
That makes a Taiwan conflict before 2027 less likely, Vance added.
In addition, Beijing might believe it does not need to invade Taiwan to take control when subversion from the outside can be sufficient, he said.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
ENTERTAINERS IN CHINA: Taiwanese generally back the government being firm on infiltration and ‘united front’ work,’ the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association said Most people support the government probing Taiwanese entertainers for allegedly “amplifying” the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda, a survey conducted by the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association showed on Friday. Public support stood at 56.4 percent for action by the Mainland Affairs Council and the Ministry of Culture to enhance scrutiny on Taiwanese performers and artists who have developed careers in China while allegedly adhering to the narrative of Beijing’s propaganda that denigrates or harms Taiwanese sovereignty, the poll showed. Thirty-three percent did not support the action, it showed. The poll showed that 51.5 percent of respondents supported the government’s investigation into Taiwanese who have
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a