Japan and the US could not stand by if China attacked Taiwan, and Beijing needs to understand this, former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe said yesterday.
Speaking virtually to a forum organized by Taiwanese think tank the Institute for National Policy Research, Abe said that the Senkaku Islands — known as the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in Taiwan — the Sakishima Islands and Yonaguni Island are only about 100km from Taiwan.
An invasion of Taiwan would be a grave danger to Japan, he said.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
“A Taiwan emergency is a Japanese emergency, and therefore an emergency for the Japan-US alliance. People in Beijing, [Chinese] President Xi Jinping (習近平) in particular, should never have a misunderstanding in recognizing this,” Abe said.
Abe called on the democratic world to prevent a Chinese invasion by standing together and jointly urging Xi and the Chinese Communist Party “not to choose the wrong path.”
“A stronger Taiwan, a thriving Taiwan, and a Taiwan that guarantees freedom and human rights are also in Japan’s interests. Of course, this is also in the interest of the whole world,” Abe said.
Photo: AP
A military action targeting Taiwan would also lead to “economic suicide” for China, despite it being one of the world’s top economies, and significantly affect the global economy given China’s close economic and trade ties with the rest of the world, he added.
That is why maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait is in the interest of all parties involved, he said.
Abe reiterated his support for Taiwan’s bid to join the Tokyo-led international trade bloc, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
During his tenure as prime minister, Abe said he tried to expand Japan’s strategic economic, security and diplomatic standing in the world order, and saw the need to “firmly connect ourselves to a free and open democratic framework.”
“Based on the same idea, I support Taiwan’s participation in the TPP,” he said, using the CPTPP’s former name, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, to refer to the trade bloc.
“The role of the TPP in maintaining and strengthening the rules-based international order is important. Taiwan is more than qualified to participate,” he said.
On Tuesday in London, British Secret Intelligence Service Chief Richard Moore told an event organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies: “The Chinese Communist Party leadership increasingly favors bold and decisive action on national security grounds. The days of [former Chinese leader] Deng Xiaoping’s (鄧小平) ‘hide your strength, bide your time’ are over.”
“Beijing believes its own propaganda about Western frailties and underestimates Washington’s resolve. The risk of Chinese miscalculation through overconfidence is real,” Moore said, without mentioning Taiwan explicitly.
The MI6 head warned about the spread of Chinese surveillance technology, which he said was used in “targeting the Uighur population in Xinjiang,” and said the UK needed to recognize that “technologies of control are being increasingly exported to other governments.”
Moore said that “adapting to a world affected by the rise of China is the single-biggest priority for MI6.”
Additional reporting by the Guardian
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS