The threat from China is “very serious,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) warned in an interview with French television on Friday.
“If you look at the level of their military exercises around Taiwan, either in the air or on the surface, or their missile capabilities, [the Chinese military] is being improved tremendously in the [past] few years,” Wu said during an interview with France24. “They also openly talked about invading Taiwan.”
Last year alone, there were more than 900 sorties by Chinese military aircraft, which is threatening to Taiwanese, he said.
Photo copied by Yang Cheng-yu, Taipei Times
“We just have to be prepared, whether they are going to attack Taiwan next year, in two years or in 10 years,” whether it is an all-out invasion or a military skirmish within Taiwan’s territory, he said.
Asked if the US would go to war with China to defend Taiwan, Wu said that “it is a question for the US to consider whether Taiwan is valuable enough for them to intervene.”
“We have the responsibility of defending ourselves. What we are asking for from the United States is that it continues to live up to its commitments under the Taiwan Relations Act,” he said.
The act stipulates that the US is committed to providing Taiwan with sufficient defensive armaments and helping Taiwan with military training, he added.
The US is working hard in this regard, while the level of Taiwan-US cooperation has been increasing, ranging from information exchanges, arms sales, personnel training and guidance on modernizing Taiwan’s reservist forces, Wu said.
Many foreign leaders and high-ranking officials have expressed concerns about security across the Taiwan Strait on more than 20 occasions, showing that maintaining peace and stability across the Strait has become a consensus of the international community, he said.
In other news, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday condemned China for impeding Taiwanese officers’ participation in the Washington-based Naval Attaches Association, a non-governmental organization that serves as a platform for navy officers from different countries to interact.
The association rescinded an invitation for Taiwan to join the organization after China’s strong objections, although it last summer agreed to a membership request from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US, the Financial Times reported on Friday.
The office appealed to the US Department of State for support, but was told that the US government could not help because the association is a private organization, the newspaper reported, citing officials in Taipei.
The incident again exposes China’s authoritarianism and its inclination to use coercive means to intervene in the operations of foreign non-governmental organizations, the ministry said in a statement.
Taiwanese diplomats in the US would continue to promote bilateral partnerships, it said, thanking the state department and the US Navy for lending moral support to Taiwan and assisting its efforts.
Taiwan has the right and is willing to participate in international affairs and deepen relations with different countries, it added.
The nation would continue to enhance official and unofficial relations with like-minded partners to defend freedom, democracy and human rights, it said.
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
STAY VIGILANT: When experiencing symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, such as dizziness or fatigue, near a water heater, open windows and doors to ventilate the area Rooftop flue water heaters should only be installed outdoors or in properly ventilated areas to prevent toxic gas from building up, the Yilan County Fire Department said, after a man in Taipei died of carbon monoxide poisoning on Monday last week. The 39-year-old man, surnamed Chen (陳), an assistant professor at Providence University in Taichung, was at his Taipei home for the holidays when the incident occurred, news reports said. He was taking a shower in the bathroom of a rooftop addition when carbon monoxide — a poisonous byproduct of combustion — leaked from a water heater installed in a poorly ventilated
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