Taiwan must show it is determined to defend itself no matter who wins the US presidency, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said yesterday as the US election campaign entered its final hours.
Former US president Donald Trump — the Republican presidential candidate, who was neck and neck in the polls with US Vice President Kamala Harris of the Democratic Party — has made comments on the campaign trail that Taiwan should pay to be protected and also accused it of stealing US semiconductor business.
Taiwan has faced a sustained military pressure campaign from Beijing over the past five years, including four major rounds of war games in the past two years.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
“No matter who is elected [US president], we have to let them understand that Taiwan has the determination to defend itself, and the importance of Taiwan’s economic security and strategic geopolitical position,” Koo said in response to media queries on the sidelines of a legislative session.
He said the government’s position was to continuously bolster its self-defense capabilities.
“We take the attitude of maintaining regional peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait to let the world see Taiwan’s value, whether in terms of economic security or Taiwan’s strategic geopolitical position, so that the world can see the important value of Taiwan,” Koo said, when asked if he was nervous that a Trump administration would abandon the nation.
An internal Taiwan security memo, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters, said that China has recently launched a renewed propaganda campaign trying to stir up fears that Taiwan would become a “sacrificial piece” because the US is likely to change its support for Taiwan after the vote.
“The reality is that regardless of the election outcome supporting Taiwan has become a consensus,” the memo added.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, which last week implied that Trump as president could “discard” Taiwan, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While the US is Taiwan’s most important international backer and arms supplier, despite the absence of formal diplomatic ties, Taiwan has also made developing its own weapons systems a priority, such as missiles and submarines.
Taiwan has no formal defense pact with the US, as Asian neighbors Japan and South Korea do, after Washington terminated a previous treaty with Taipei in 1979 when it switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing.
However, some Taiwanese military personnel train in the US, including F-16 pilots, and Taipei has said that small numbers of US forces are in Taiwan in a training role.
Taiwan has reported an uptick in Chinese military activities as the US election approached, including China staging long-range air force drills into the Pacific passing through air space to the nation’s south.
Taiwan received strong backing from Trump’s first administration from 2017 to 2021, including arms sales, which have continued under US President Joe Biden’s White House.
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