Taiwan's foreign minister recently remarked that China's decision to take over the democratic island nation would depend on the U.S.' response to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
On Monday, Taiwanese foreign minister Joseph Wu warned that their island nation may be attacked by China, if the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sees the U.S.' response to Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine as "weak."
"I believe that China's leaders are...watching the situation and trying to draw their own conclusions," Wu remarked, as per Radio Free Asia. "The danger is that if they believe that the West's response to the Russian invasion is weak, and lacks impact, they could take that as a positive sign [for an invasion of Taiwan]."
Taiwan has long been contested by China, which believes that it owns the small island nation. Taiwan was formerly under the authoritarian Kuomintang government that was established during the fall of Qing dynasty in 1911. It later transitioned to a democracy in the 1990s and was never ruled by the CCP or was a part of China.
When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called upon the international community for volunteers to join their defense against Putin's Russian army, a Taiwanese man from the city of Taichung took to Twitter to post his ID and declare that he was ready to go to Ukraine and fight alongside them.
"I am proud of being Taiwanese, and want to defend democracy and freedom alongside our allies around the world," the man from Taichung, who said he was a former corporal in the Taiwanese military, wrote. While he did fear death, he said that "I still have to do what I think is right."
Wu said that he and his ministry have been closely watching the events unfold between Ukraine and Russia and have witnessed the "indomitable Ukrainian government and people fighting tirelessly," which had inspired him and the people of Taiwan, "who also face authoritarian oppression, have been inspired."
Wu's remarks on China's imminent attack on Taiwan come after Chinese premier Li Kequiang said that the CCP had boosted the development of "modern military logistics system and a modern military asset management system, [and] modernized of weapons and equipment" and continued reform of national defense capabilities in 2021.
China's Ministry of Finance also proposed a 1.45 trillion yuan budet to the National People's Congress (NPC), which shows a 7.1% increase year-on-year, the largest increase in military spending since 2019. But Taiwan military expert Lin Ying-yu commented that the figures are likely to be higher than what was reported.
Su Tze-yun, who works at Taiwan's Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that China's military spending had more than quadrupled under the leadership of CCP's President Xi Jinping.
China, which has refused to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine has called for "maximum restraint" in Ukraine, Reuters reported. Chinese President Xi Jinping said during a virtual meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that the three countries should together support peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, Chinese state run media channel said. President Xi said that the situation in Ukraine was "worrying" and that leaders must prioritize efforts that prevent it from "spinning out of control."
