The Wagner Group revolt highlighted the fragility of dictatorship and it might deepen Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) insecurity, National Security Council Secretary-General Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said.
Wagner Group mercenaries seized the Russian army base in Rostov-on-Don and advanced toward Moscow with the aim of toppling Russian President Vladimir Putin last month.
“Dictatorship might not be as strong as we thought and its fragility still exists,” Koo said in an interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the sister paper of the Taipei Times) posted online yesterday.
Photo: EPA-EFE / Xinhua / Li Gang
Xi prioritizes the security of his authority over everything else, Koo said, adding that it remains to be seen how the anxiety caused by anti-espionage legislation and the languid economy turns out.
Koo said that China intends to seek unification with Taiwan by any means and considers it a “historic mission,” while 90 percent of Taiwanese wish to maintain the “status quo.”
The conflicting objectives are the fundamental source of the tensions across the Taiwan Strait, rather than the Democratic Progressive Party being in office, he said.
Even if the candidate of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) or another party won the presidential election, they would face the same situation, he added.
The US takes the approach of coordinated deterrence on China, such as by issuing statements on international occasions to underline the importance of cross-strait peace and stability as it concerns the interests of the world, Koo said.
The US and its international allies are sending a clear and consistent message to China against unilaterally changing the “status quo” by force, he said.
The US is planning to form a Marine Littoral Regiment and has access to military bases in the Philippines to prevent China from easily entering and exiting the first island chain, he added.
In addition to Washington’s efforts, Taiwan has to strengthen its self-defense capabilities, Koo said.
China, should it invade, would be at risk of economic sanctions and the intervention of foreign military forces, he said.
If Xi is rational, he would understand that invading Taiwan by force would lead to consequences that he cannot afford, he added.
Cross-strait issues are not Chinese domestic issues, but a concern of the international community, Koo said.
The UN Charter stipulates that international disputes should be resolved peacefully and the G7 is “strongly opposing any unilateral attempts to change the peacefully established status of territories by force or coercion anywhere in the world,” he said.
Taiwan and China not being subordinate to each other has become a reality “acknowledged to a great extent by the international community,” he added.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
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