Home Indo-Pacific Taiwan Must Rely On Itself For Defence: Foreign Minister Lin Chia-Lung

Taiwan Must Rely On Itself For Defence: Foreign Minister Lin Chia-Lung

Taiwan must rely on itself for defence and is likely to keep increasing spending and modernising its military given the threat it faces from China, Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung said on Friday, responding to criticism from Donald Trump.

U.S. former President Trump, the Republican candidate in a rematch with President Joe Biden, said in an interview published this week that โ€œTaiwan should pay us for defenceโ€, adding that the island had taken American semiconductor business.

The United States is the most important international backer and arms supplier of Taiwan, which China claims as its own. Despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties, Washington is bound by law to provide the means for the islandโ€™s defence.

But Taiwan must rely for defence on itself as it has no formal defence pact with the United States, as Asian neighbours Japan and South Korea do, since Washington terminated a previous treaty with Taipei in 1979 when it switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing.

Biden angered China in 2022 by saying U.S forces would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, a deviation from a long-held U.S. position of โ€œstrategic ambiguityโ€.

Asked about Trumpโ€™s comments, Lin told foreign reporters in Taipei that โ€œwe pay great attention toโ€ them, and Taiwan-U.S. relations are built on the bipartisan support Taiwan enjoys in the United States.

โ€œI think everyone has a consensus on the main point, which is the China threat,โ€ said Lin, who took up his post on May 20 as part of the cabinet of newly elected President Lai Ching-te.

โ€œIn fact on national defence, we must rely on ourselves โ€“ this is the precondition. Since the start of Taiwanโ€™s democratisation over the past 30 years, we have stood alone against Chinaโ€™s threat.โ€

In the past eight years, Taiwanโ€™s defence spending has doubled to now stand at 2.5% of GDP, Lin said. โ€œI expect this will continue to rise.โ€

All countries must โ€œwork hardโ€, though, he added, since Chinaโ€™s defence spending is also rising.


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But Taiwan is also reforming its military, Lin said, pointing to efforts such as extending conscription to a year from four months.

Taiwan has made defence modernisation a priority, including developing its own submarines, and the government has said many times that Taiwan must rely on itself for defence especially in view of the islandโ€™s diplomatic isolation.

โ€˜PORCUPINEโ€™ STRATEGY

Successive U.S. administrations have pushed Taiwan to modernise its military to become a โ€œporcupineโ€ that is hard for China to attack, advocating the sale of inexpensive, mobile, and survivable โ€“ or โ€œasymmetricโ€ โ€“ weapons that could outlast any initial assault by Chinaโ€™s larger military.

That strategy has also been championed by Taiwanโ€™s government since the ruling Democratic Progressive Party won office in 2016.

China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, and has rebuffed repeated offers of talks from Lai, who Beijing calls a โ€œseparatistโ€. He rejects Chinaโ€™s sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwanโ€™s people can decide their future.

Lin said Taiwan needed to pay attention to, but not be constrained by, Chinaโ€™s centennial goals, including the building of a world-class military by 2049, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Peopleโ€™s Republic of China.

โ€œWe must be prepared to face a possible Chinese invasion, but we must be united,โ€ he said.

โ€œWe hope that every day when Xi Jinping gets up in the morning, that even though he has a timetable for the future that he says โ€˜not today'โ€ for attacking Taiwan, Lin added, referring to Chinaโ€™s president.