Taiwan’s preparations to deal with a possible Chinese attack are not a provocation, and Taiwanese need to take the threat seriously and prepare, National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) said yesterday.
Taiwan’s government, which rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, has been increasing military spending and regularly holding civil defence drills under what President William Lai (賴清德) refers to as whole-of-society resilience efforts.
Speaking at a forum in Taipei, Lin, who oversees the resilience program, said China’s massive defense spending and its ongoing military pressure in the region are real threats.
Photo: Reuters
“People often portray Taiwan’s preparations as provocation toward the other side,” he said. “I want to take this opportunity to tell everyone: all of China’s preparations have one clear goal — military aggression and external expansion.”
Lin said Beijing’s actions are the opposite of Taipei’s.
“A country that advocates ‘the two sides of the strait are one family’ does not need to test-fire missiles and rockets in the Taiwan Strait,” he added. “Taiwan today does not fly a single aircraft or send a single warship to intrude into the other side’s airspace or waters. The one provoking the regional order is not anyone else — it is China.”
Lin said that given the danger posed, government efforts to get people ready for conflict are vital, and said it was wrong to look at what was happening with the war in Ukraine and think it could not happen in Taiwan.
“If we do not act today, strength will not suddenly appear tomorrow,” he added. “If we do not conduct drills today, when a crisis arrives, we may not even know the most basic standard operating procedure.”
There would be immediate peace if China were to give up its military ambitions toward Taiwan, Lin said. “But if Taiwan now gives up its ability to defend itself, there will no longer be a Taiwan in the world.”
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