Outgoing President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) expressed optimism about maintaining peace in the Taiwan Strait by working together with international friends in an interview with the BBC released on Saturday.
“If we deal with the matter very carefully, there’s still a great possibility for us to maintain peace as we all need,” Tsai said.
A military conflict with China is possible and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) might have “a plan of some sort, but I don’t think that is a definitive plan,” she said.
Photo: CNA
Xi would have to adjust his plans as the world is changing, especially after the war in Ukraine, which demonstrated that democracies around the globe are capable of cooperating “to form a meaningful deterrent whenever there is an invasion contemplated,” she said.
“The cost of taking over Taiwan is going to be enormous,” she said, adding that Taiwan is focusing on increasing that cost by bolstering the nation’s self-defense capabilities and working with international partners.
Taiwan has made an “unprecedented” investment into its military capacity-building, with a focus on using that funding efficiently “to build our capacity at a speed that can match with the expansion of the Chinese” military’s capabilities, she said.
Photo: CNA
China has to look beyond the military expenses to the economic costs, as launching an invasion of Taiwan “may probably delay the development of China for years, even for decades,” she said.
Aggressive Chinese behavior in the region has also alarmed neighboring countries, which have repeatedly voiced opposition against any unilateral change of the “status quo,” she said.
Asked what the “status quo” means to her, Tsai said that Taiwanese “enjoy freedom and democracy and progressive values, and we are a group of people that are very proud of ourselves.”
One of the most satisfying achievements of her two terms in office is Taiwan’s relationships with other countries, she said.
“This is a time that we feel that we are actually part of the world rather than part of the cross-strait” situation, she said.
“We need friends, and we need people to come and express their concerns for us,” she said, adding that working with other nations has lessened the effects of cross-strait tensions.
Tsai disputed arguments that say the US should shift its support from Ukraine to Taiwan, considering the latter’s critical role in the global supply chain and geopolitics.
“You have to support Ukraine until the very end, because the determination is the most important thing as far as we are concerned,” she said.
The world’s support for Ukraine offers vital confidence for Taiwanese, she added.
Meanwhile, on her last day in office yesterday before president-elect William Lai (賴清德) is sworn in today, Tsai at the Presidential Office met with several delegations, including from the UK, Japan and Singapore, who are to attend the inauguration.
During her separate meetings with each delegation, Tsai expressed hope that they could support Taiwan’s participation in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.
TECH EFFECT: While Chiayi County was the oldest region in the nation, Hsinchu county and city, home of the nation’s chip industry, were the youngest, the report showed Seven of the nation’s administrative regions, encompassing 57.2 percent of Taiwan’s townships and villages, became “super-aged societies” in June, the Ministry of the Interior said in its latest report. A region is considered super-aged if 20 percent of the population is aged 65 or older. The ministry report showed that Taiwan had 4,391,744 people aged 65 or older as of June, representing 18.76 percent of the total population and an increase of 1,024,425 people compared with August 2018. In June, the nation’s elderly dependency ratio was 27.3 senior citizens per 100 working-aged people, an increase of 7.39 people over August 2018, it said. That
‘UNITED FRONT’: The married couple allegedly produced talk show videos for platforms such as Facebook and YouTube to influence Taiwan’s politics A husband and wife affiliated with the China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP) were indicted yesterday for allegedly receiving NT$74 million (US$2.32 million) from China to make radio and digital media propaganda to promote the Chinese government’s political agenda and influence the outcome of Taiwan’s elections. Chang Meng-chung (張孟崇) and his wife, Hung Wen-ting (洪文婷), allegedly received a total of NT$74 million from China between 2021 and last year to promote candidates favored by Beijing, contravening the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) and election laws, the Chiayi District Prosecutors’ Office said. The couple acted as Beijing’s propaganda mouthpiece by disparaging Hong Kong democracy activists
EARLY ARRIVALS: The first sets of HIMARS purchased from the US arrived ahead of their scheduled delivery, with troops already training on the platforms, a source said The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday said it spotted 35 Chinese military aircraft, including fighters and bombers, flying to the south of Taiwan proper on the way to exercises in the Pacific, a second consecutive day it has reported such activities. The Chinese Ministry of National Defense did not respond to a request for comment on the missions, reported just days before tomorrow’s US presidential election. The US is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. Its arms sales to Taipei include a US$2 billion missile system announced last month. The MND said that from 9am yesterday,
A Control Yuan member yesterday said he would initiate an investigation into why the number of foreign nationals injured or killed in traffic incidents has nearly doubled in the past few years, and whether government agencies’ mechanisms were ineffective in ensuring road safety. Control Yuan member Yeh Ta-hua (葉大華) said in a news release that Taiwan has been described as a “living hell for pedestrians” and traffic safety has become an important national security issue. According to a National Audit Office report released last year, more than 780,000 foreign nationals were legally residing in Taiwan in 2019, which grew to more than
RSS