Taiwan officials say war with China is not inevitable

Taipei, Taiwan– Although Chinese military aircraft and ships cross the median line of the Taiwan Strait daily as part of a growing harassment campaign, the island does not view war with China as inevitable or inevitable, senior government officials said.

“They are huge. Bigger. Bullish. Economically, yes. Militarily, yes,” Chung-kwang Tien, Taiwan’s deputy foreign minister, told a group of international reporters during a media tour sponsored by the Taiwanese government. But, he said, the democratically governed island knows its weaknesses and has built a strong international support community.

“So we are small, but we are not alone,” said Tien.

One of its strongest supporters is the United States. This month, the State Department announced the sale of $360 million worth of drones to Taipei, the 15th sale of defensive weapons to the island. But arms exports are straining relations between Washington and Beijing, which have been particularly strained since then-Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in 2022. Only recently have US and Chinese military officials resumed communication.

“How can a small island with 23 million people in the middle of the ocean … withstand the pressure of a very hostile neighbor that is, I don’t know, a hundred times bigger?” Tien said. “Some things cannot be judged by size.”

Using chopsticks as a metaphor – one can be easily broken, but a handful together is almost impossible to break – Tien explained why Taiwan is “trying to gain as many friends and as many like-minded countries as possible.” “We don’t want war, but we always prepare for the worst.”

One of the ways the island is preparing for a possible conflict with China is through its annual war games in July. This year’s exercises will be more similar to combat than ever before, a senior official told Reuters.

Ultimately, Taiwan cannot count on help from other countries if it does not help itself, said Catherine Hsu, director general of the Department of International Information Services at the Foreign Ministry.

“Only when we can show the rest of the world that we are determined to defend our country” can we count on support from others, Hsu said, adding that Taiwan and its partners must “send a clear and unambiguous signal to China” that invading Taiwan is not a wise idea.

Nevertheless, Hsu said, there is no reason for Taiwan to declare its independence. The Taiwanese people already consider themselves independent and know that such an official declaration would be a serious provocation for the Chinese Communist Party.

Tien echoed those comments, saying Taiwan is “confident, but we are cautious and will not use provocative words or actions to anger the other side.”

Instead, he said, they simply wanted to maintain the status quo across the Taiwan Strait.