Taiwan has enough food to sustain the nation for a year in the event of an invasion by China, but reserves of natural gas and fuel might not last long, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) told legislators yesterday.
Fears over a possible invasion of Taiwan have been growing, especially after US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan on Aug. 2 and 3, prompting China to launch several days of large-scale military exercises around Taiwan.
In a question-and-answer session in the legislature, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip William Tseng (曾銘宗) asked what strategic supplies the goverment has prepared if there were a war.
Photo: CNA
Tseng was referring to comments made by Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Chen Chern-chyi (陳正祺) in an interview with the British newspaper the Times, in which he said Taiwan has been preparing “critical supplies” to cope with a possible conflict with China or a Chinese blockade of Taiwan.
Be it a blockade or an invasion, the nation must have three things ready in case conflict breaks out: food, medical supplies and weapons Su said.
The government is also preparing water and energy resources, he added.
Asked about the nation’s level of preparedness, Su said that supplies might differ during wartime, with, for example, electricity supply to companies and factories possibly being limited.
National security agencies have clear plans to prepare strategic materials, but “certain details cannot be made public,” he said.
Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) said that Taiwan should have defense awareness and be prepared to defend itself, which the government has been doing, adding that it takes regular inventories of critical supplies.
Independent Legislator Huang Kuo-shu (黃國書) asked the premier about a New York Times report on Wednesday that said the US aims to “transform Taiwan into a weapons depot” to help the country “hold out on its own until the United States or other nations intervened.”
Su said that while Taiwan needs state-of-the-art weapons to bolster its self-defense capabilities, the claims in the article “are not true.”
Taiwan is able to purchase advanced weapons on its own, he said, adding that with help from all sides, the nation has enough weapons to defend against Chinese intimidation.
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