Taiwan Must Defend Itself, Defense Minister Says

October 29, 2021 Topic: Taiwan Region: Asia Blog Brand: The Buzz Tags: TaiwanChinaJoe BidenArms SalesHowitzers

Taiwan Must Defend Itself, Defense Minister Says

Taiwan can lean on the United States as a support in its defense against China, but it cannot depend on it. 

Chiu Kuo-cheng, Taiwan’s defense minister, said on Thursday that the island’s military forces could not rely on outside help in the event of an attack from mainland China, and would need to mount their own defense.

“The country must rely on itself,” Chiu said. “If any friends or other groups can help us [...] we’re happy to have it, but we cannot completely depend on it.” 

Chiu’s remarks came after a questioning session from the Legislative Yuan, Taiwan’s unicameral parliament, raised concerns about Taiwan’s ability to protect itself from a Chinese invasion following rising tensions between Beijing and Taipei. Although the relationship between the mainland and the island, which China regards as a rebellious province, has never been friendly, it is now at its most adversarial level in decades. Since the hundredth anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party’s founding in early October, China has sent hundreds of fighter jets into the airspace surrounding Taiwan—an area known as an “air defense identification zone” (ADIZ) over which Taiwan does not claim sovereignty, but actively tracks incoming planes. 

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry has warned on other occasions that, if current trends persist, China would have the “comprehensive” ability to invade and conquer the island by 2025, pushing its leadership to invest increasingly in defense and maintain cordial relations with the United States.

In an interview with CNN, Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen optimistically suggested that the United States would likely help to defend the island if China attempted to invade, citing the “long-term relationship we have with the U.S., and also the support of the people of the U.S. [and] Congress.”

Tsai confirmed that U.S. forces were present on the island training Taiwanese troops—a point on which the U.S. Defense Department had previously been ambiguous. 

As part of its relationship with Taiwan, America has sold billions of dollars’ worth of weapons to its military, and sales noticeably increased under the Trump administration. The Biden administration’s most recent sale took place in August when it sold the Taiwanese military a self-propelled howitzer system for $750 million.

As tensions have escalated between China and Taiwan, President Joe Biden suggested that the United States had an obligation to defend Taiwan, seemingly contradicting Washington’s longstanding policy of “strategic ambiguity” on whether or not it would. 

The White House later claimed that the president’s remarks were not indicative of a policy change.

Trevor Filseth is a current and foreign affairs writer for the National Interest.

Image: Reuters