Among the schemes conducted by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and China to undermine Taiwan, the most incendiary approach has been the dissemination of anti-US narratives.
They insist that the US would not send troops to defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, and threaten Taiwanese with the notion that voting for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) would incite a war.
However, if the public bought into the KMT’s alarmist, but empty claim, the KMT would surrender to China and bring an end to the “dilemma” of the Republic of China once in office.
When imagining possible scenarios, China and the KMT have always favored the hypothesis that the US would not come to Taiwan’s military defense.
If China makes a move against Taiwan, as long as the US deploys its navy and air force for reconnaissance and patrolling missions, and continues to supply Taiwan with weapons, intelligence, communications and coordination, then the armed forces would fend off the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) even without the US army present on the ground.
This hypothesis has been playing out in Ukraine for more than a year. Even though the US and NATO have not sent troops to Ukraine, but provided assistance from afar, such as imposing economic sanctions, supplying weapons and helping Ukraine identify and target Russian military devices, Russia has been subjected to high casualties and economic deprivation.
As Ukraine shares its eastern border with Russia, it has been easy for Russia to send in tanks, but the Javelin missiles supplied to Ukraine by the US have caused heavy damage.
While the US has supplied Ukraine with the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, which has a range of up to 80.5km, its assistance providing exact coordinates to Ukrainian forces for strikes on Russian command posts, ammunition depots and supply centers has been crucial in supporting Ukraine’s stiff resistance to Russia’s invasion.
In contrast, Taiwan has the advantage of the natural barrier of the Taiwan Strait. China would need to transport many soldiers and great quantities of supplies across the strait, including armored vehicles, weapons and medical supplies, which would place them in a vulnerable position when crossing the sea.
With Taiwan’s anti-ship missiles and the US’ intelligence, the PLA would have a higher chance of sinking to the bottom of the sea than setting foot on Taiwan. Furthermore, without heavy artillery and supplies, even if some PLA troops managed to land, they would not prevail.
In terms of the various scenarios of a Chinese invasion, whether the US sends troops does not play a decisive role. The KMT’s threat that “young people would be sent to war” is the cost of defending Taiwan’s freedom and democracy.
At a time of fierce rivalry and competition, whether people are fighting for national independence or personal advancement, life is a “battlefield” regardless of war or peace. During peacetime, it is about gaining a technological edge over rivals, and during wartime, it is about utilizing those technologies to fight.
The scenarios made up by China and the KMT are malevolent ploys to turn Taiwan against the US and to promote defeatism. If people vote for the KMT, Taiwan would end up in China’s pocket, and Taiwanese would become slaves of the Chinese Communist Party.
Young people should have the will and courage to fight for their nation and deter the PLA from marching on Taiwan’s soil, with or without the US army.
James Wang is a media commentator.
Translated by Rita Wang
Why is Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not a “happy camper” these days regarding Taiwan? Taiwanese have not become more “CCP friendly” in response to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) use of spies and graft by the United Front Work Department, intimidation conducted by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the Armed Police/Coast Guard, and endless subversive political warfare measures, including cyber-attacks, economic coercion, and diplomatic isolation. The percentage of Taiwanese that prefer the status quo or prefer moving towards independence continues to rise — 76 percent as of December last year. According to National Chengchi University (NCCU) polling, the Taiwanese
US President Donald Trump is systematically dismantling the network of multilateral institutions, organizations and agreements that have helped prevent a third world war for more than 70 years. Yet many governments are twisting themselves into knots trying to downplay his actions, insisting that things are not as they seem and that even if they are, confronting the menace in the White House simply is not an option. Disagreement must be carefully disguised to avoid provoking his wrath. For the British political establishment, the convenient excuse is the need to preserve the UK’s “special relationship” with the US. Following their White House
It would be absurd to claim to see a silver lining behind every US President Donald Trump cloud. Those clouds are too many, too dark and too dangerous. All the same, viewed from a domestic political perspective, there is a clear emerging UK upside to Trump’s efforts at crashing the post-Cold War order. It might even get a boost from Thursday’s Washington visit by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. In July last year, when Starmer became prime minister, the Labour Party was rigidly on the defensive about Europe. Brexit was seen as an electorally unstable issue for a party whose priority
After the coup in Burma in 2021, the country’s decades-long armed conflict escalated into a full-scale war. On one side was the Burmese army; large, well-equipped, and funded by China, supported with weapons, including airplanes and helicopters from China and Russia. On the other side were the pro-democracy forces, composed of countless small ethnic resistance armies. The military junta cut off electricity, phone and cell service, and the Internet in most of the country, leaving resistance forces isolated from the outside world and making it difficult for the various armies to coordinate with one another. Despite being severely outnumbered and
RSS