Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) yesterday reaffirmed Taiwan’s commitment to defending itself, a day after columnist Thomas Friedman warned that US President Donald Trump might not help the nation against Chinese aggression.
“The consensus between Taiwan and the US is that we must strengthen our self-defense capabilities,” Koo told reporters on the sidelines of a legislative meeting in response to a request for comments on the New York Times columnist’s remarks on Trump.
“The US not only assists Taiwan’s efforts to strengthen our ability to defend ourselves, but is also working toward joining forces with like-minded countries in the Indo-Pacific region to bolster collective deterrence against China,” he said.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Achieving peace through strength remains the unchanging direction of US policy, he said.
Taipei agrees with Friedman that Taiwan should focus on carving out an indispensable role for itself in the global economy by developing key economic technologies, Koo said, adding that the nation continues to work toward achieving this goal.
Friedman, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, told a leaders’ forum held by the Chinese-language Global Views Monthly the previous day that his advice for Taiwan is: “Don’t make any sharp moves.”
“I am not sure that Trump would protect New York City if it were invaded, let alone Taiwan,” Friedman said.
“If I were Taiwan, I would not be in an adventurous mood right now,” he said.
“You just got to be the best Taiwan you can be and maybe the quietest too, because the old days where you could be sure you had an American president had your back, those days are over,” he said.
Trump is unlikely to harbor any illusions that he could sell out Taiwan and its freedom and democracy without going down in infamy as one of the most shameful presidents in US history, but Taiwan should still adopt a porcupine strategy to protect itself, he said.
Taiwan should be doing everything it could to avoid putting Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) into a position where he feels he must act militarily, Friedman said.
The approach requires the nation to swallow some of its “pride and aspirations” to focus on building Taiwan’s “amazing economy” and keep making itself “indispensable to the global economy technology supply chain,” he said.
“That, I think, is your best defense, because there is no replacing you,” Friedman said. “If China invaded Taiwan, I just don’t think Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co [TSMC] would be TSMC any more.”
Later yesterday, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said that the US policy stance in Taiwan remains unchanged.
From Trump to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, US officials have been clear that Washington strenuously maintains peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and opposes any effort to unilaterally alter the “status quo,” it said.
The US hopes Taiwan and China could resolve their differences peacefully and find a solution that is acceptable to the peoples on both sides without resorting to coercion, it added.
The US policy stance on the Taiwan issue is constant and will not be abandoned, the institute said, citing Rubio.
Last week, Hegseth emphasized the importance of maintaining the balance of power in the region and continued US concerns over China’s actions in the South China Sea, surrounding Taiwan, and toward US friends and allies in the Indo-Pacific region, it said.
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