Taiwan must rely on itself for defence, foreign minister responds to Trump

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By Ben Blanchard

TAIPEI (Reuters) -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 “Taiwan should pay us for defence”, 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 island’s defence.

But Taiwan 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 “strategic ambiguity”.

Asked about Trump’s comments, Lin told foreign reporters in Taipei that “we pay great attention to” them, and Taiwan-U.S. relations are built on the bipartisan support Taiwan enjoys in the United States.

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

“In fact on national defence, we must rely on ourselves – this is the precondition. Since the start of Taiwan’s democratisation over the past 30 years, we have stood alone against China’s threat.”

In the past eight years, Taiwan’s defence spending has doubled to now stand at 2.5% of GDP, Lin said. “I expect this will continue to rise.”

All countries must “work hard”, though, he added, since China’s defence spending is also rising.

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 the island’s security rests in its own hands, especially in view of Taipei’s diplomatic isolation.

‘PORCUPINE’ STRATEGY

Successive U.S. administrations have pushed Taiwan to modernise its military to become a “porcupine” that is hard for China to attack, advocating the sale of inexpensive, mobile, and survivable – or “asymmetric” – weapons that could outlast any initial assault by China’s larger military.

That strategy has also been championed by Taiwan’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 “separatist”. He rejects China’s sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.

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

“We must be prepared to face a possible Chinese invasion, but we must be united,” he said.

“We 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 ‘not today'” for attacking Taiwan, Lin added, referring to China’s president.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by William Mallard and Clarence Fernandez)