“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement.
The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack.
The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President Donald Trump, visited a university lab teaching students to make semiconductors and spoke to Taiwanese veterans at a care home.
Photo: Sky News
The documentary raised issues such as Taiwan’s drone production capacity, standing at 8,000 to 10,000 from April 2024 to April this year, falling short of the 180,000 annual production target set for 2028, plus the increase in Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft entering Taiwan’s de facto air defense identification zone since President William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration last year.
Moreover, it noted that, for the first time, the PLA deployed both of its active aircraft carriers into the Western Pacific at the same time this year.
“The population need to not be naive like in the past... China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Wu said in the interview.
“Taiwan alone, facing China — we will never be ready... it’s not possible, China is so big, so huge,” he added.
“If one day China take[s] Taiwan, of course it will be very bad for Taiwan... maybe we will be destroyed... but the modern world that we are living in now... will also disappear,” Wu said, due to the global demand for Taiwanese semiconductors.
“Americans have also given us a lot when in 1996 we [had] the missile crisis,” Wu said, adding that, now, the US military is trying to maintain regional stability and democracy to protect not only the semiconductor industry, but US-Taiwan national interests.
“Donald Trump certainly knows that without Taiwanese chips, he cannot make America great again,” Wu added.
TRAFFIC SAFETY RULES: A positive result in a drug test would result in a two-year license suspension for the driver and vehicle, and a fine of up to NT$180,000 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to authorize police to conduct roadside saliva tests by the end of the year to deter people from driving while under the influence of narcotics, it said yesterday. The ministry last month unveiled a draft of amended regulations governing traffic safety rules and penalties, which included provisions empowering police to conduct mandatory saliva tests on drivers. While currently rules authorize police to use oral fluid testing kits for signs of drug use, they do not establish penalties for noncompliance or operating procedures for officers to follow, the ministry said. The proposed changes to the regulations require
The Executive Yuan yesterday announced that registration for a one-time universal NT$10,000 cash handout to help people in Taiwan survive US tariffs and inflation would start on Nov. 5, with payouts available as early as Nov. 12. Who is eligible for the handout? Registered Taiwanese nationals are eligible, including those born in Taiwan before April 30 next year with a birth certificate. Non-registered nationals with residence permits, foreign permanent residents and foreign spouses of Taiwanese citizens with residence permits also qualify for the handouts. For people who meet the eligibility requirements, but passed away between yesterday and April 30 next year, surviving family members
China Airlines Ltd (CAL) yesterday morning joined SkyTeam’s Aviation Challenge for the fourth time, operating a demonstration flight for “net zero carbon emissions” from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Bangkok. The flight used sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at a ratio of up to 40 percent, the highest proportion CAL has achieved to date, the nation’s largest carrier said. Since April, SAF has become available to Taiwanese international carriers at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport), Kaohsiung International Airport and Taoyuan airport. In previous challenges, CAL operated “net zero carbon emission flights” to Singapore and Japan. At a ceremony at Taoyuan airport, China Airlines chief sustainability
‘ONE CHINA’: A statement that Berlin decides its own China policy did not seem to sit well with Beijing, which offered only one meeting with the German official German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul’s trip to China has been canceled, a spokesperson for his ministry said yesterday, amid rising tensions between the two nations, including over Taiwan. Wadephul had planned to address Chinese curbs on rare earths during his visit, but his comments about Berlin deciding on the “design” of its “one China” policy ahead of the trip appear to have rankled China. Asked about Wadephul’s comments, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) said the “one China principle” has “no room for any self-definition.” In the interview published on Thursday, Wadephul said he would urge China to