Taiwanese Foreign Minister Responds to Beijing's Subversive & Military Intimidation of the Democracy

CNN World June 24, 2021 0733 GMT “Taiwan’s foreign minister says ‘we need to prepare’ for military conflict with China” by Eric Cheung and Will Ripley

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Summary provided by 2244

Based on “China’s escalating military intimidation of Taiwan” has Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu issuing a warning that Taiwan “‘needs to prepare’ for a possible military conflict.” The pronouncement in an exclusive CNN interview came “one week after the island reported the largest daily incursion by Chinese military planes into Taiwan’s self-declared Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). Wu added “‘When the Chinese government is saying they would not renounce the use of force, and they conduct military exercises around Taiwan, we would rather believe it is real.”

The Chinese government sees Wu as being a “‘diehard separatist’” as Beijing views “‘stopping Taiwan independence’ as a “necessary condition for maintaining peaceful cross-strait relations.” Wu for his part says “‘he is honored’” by China’s characterization of him and notes that “‘Authoritarianism cannot tolerate truth.” Wu also believes that “‘(China) uses cognitive warfare, disinformation campaigns” as well to “undermine public confidence in democracy on the island.”

Although “A fragile status quo emerged almost 30 years ago, when Beijing and Taiwan’s then-ruling Nationalists acknowledged a ‘one China’ stance that has since been interpreted differently by the two sides.” Taiwan’s current President Tsai Ing Wen rejects ‘one China’ and has repeatedly “urged Beijing to recognize Taiwan’s sovereignty and the wishes of its people.” Wu adds that in light of the recent history of Hong Kong it is even more important to “protect its position as the world’s only Chinese-speaking democracy.” “‘If you look at the situation in Hong Kong, it is a modern tragedy’” said Wu. Freedom of press has fallen in Hong Kong with “the shutdown of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy tabloid, Apple Daily’” and Wu comments …”it is very sad for me to see what’s happening.” Wu also believes that Taiwan has a key role in opposing “China’s growing territorial ambitions over the South China Sea and beyond.

Wu projects a hopeful tone in stating that being a democracy, the people want the status quo of having “a democratically elected president and parliament, a separate military force, and the authority to issue its own visas and passports and this includes “Taiwan not run or ruled by the People’s Republic of China.” Having said that, Wu emphasizes the people and government of Taiwan want peace and dialog with Beijing and but that such a pursuit is “a joint responsibility.”