Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen has welcomed the next US delegation amid ongoing tensions in the Taiwan Strait. The island state also wants to significantly increase its military spending.
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen has compared China’s aggression against her country to Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Both developments are evidence of “how authoritarian countries are disrupting and threatening the world order,” said Tsai when welcoming a group of visitors led by US Senator Marsha Blackburn. It is the fourth American delegation to Taiwan in just a few weeks.
Tsai said democratic states must continue to unite and cooperate in the face of these threats. Taiwan will continue to work with the US and other like-minded democracies to ensure stability in the Indo-Pacific region.
A visit by the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, triggered serious tensions with China in early August. Beijing began large-scale maneuvers around Taiwan. A sea and air blockade and a possible conquest were practiced. Nevertheless, other delegations with US politicians traveled to Taiwan shortly afterwards.
China sees the democratically governed island as part of the People’s Republic. Taiwan, on the other hand, sees itself as independent.
Taiwan part of China? Not for Foreign Minister Wu
Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu again clearly condemned China’s military maneuvers on Friday. Chinese fighter jets and warships have recently operated more intensively in the 130-kilometer-wide straits of the Taiwan Strait and have repeatedly crossed the center line, which had previously been the most respected. With the exercises, China is trampling on the status quo, Wu said. “No matter how much China tries to claim that Taiwan is part of the People’s Republic of China, it is not in line with the reality on the ground,” the foreign minister said.
Wu paid tribute to European countries like Germany, France, Britain, which he said are always at the forefront of supporting Taiwan.
Taiwan is massively increasing its defense budget
In response to the growing threat from China, Taiwan announced a sharp 13.9 percent increase in its defense spending on Thursday. According to the government’s draft budget, the military budget is to increase to 586 billion Taiwan dollars, the equivalent of 19 billion euros. This corresponds to 2.4 percent of the economic output of the democratic island republic.
The Taiwanese Ministry of Defense justified the increase with the expansion of military activities by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army near Taiwan.
Source: Stern
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