KEY POINTS
- Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan president claimed their island is not China’s ultimate goal
- You Si-kun said China wants to see the West decline and assert its influence across the globe
- The top Taiwanese lawmaker said protecting Taiwan is a global public interest
Taiwan’s top legislator warned that China would pursue global domination amid its ambition of capturing the self-ruled island.
In his speech at the Washington-based think tank Hudson Institute, You Si-kun, the speaker of the Taiwanese Legislative Yuan, said China harbors bigger ambitions than Taiwan.
“Taiwan is not [Beijing’s] ultimate goal or final destination,” You said, Taipei Times reported.
“The CCP [Chinese Communist Party] wants to see the East to rise and the West to decline; it wants to be hegemon over Europe, the Americas, and the entire world,” the Taiwanese official added.
You urged the West to defend Taiwan against Chinese threats by stating that countering China’s aggression is a global issue.
“Protecting Taiwan equates to defending both Europe and the U.S.; to ensure Taiwan’s security is to ensure the global public interest,” You said.
“If we do not take China’s threats seriously, a dark future awaits all of mankind,” Taiwan’s legislative leader added.
Despite continued Chinese intimidation, You said Taiwan is grateful for the security provided by the U.S. and its Asian allies.
The top Taiwanese lawmaker said the “crescent of defense formed by [South] Korea, Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines,” along with the presence of the U.S. military, would be a “key stabilizer” in the Indo-Pacific region.
Meanwhile, China asserted its preparedness to “smash any form of Taiwan independence” as the U.S. moves to provide additional military assistance to the island.
Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Col. Tan Kefei said the People’s Liberation Army continues to strengthen its force to counter any “outside interference” supporting Taiwan’s independence and defend the country’s territorial integrity, the Associated Press reported.
China’s latest threat came after reports that President Joe Biden is poised to approve the sale of $500 million worth of weapons to Taiwan and deploy more than 100 American military personnel to evaluate the island’s defenses.
Tensions between China and Taiwan flared recently after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen met with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy during her U.S. stopover last month, despite Beijing’s repeated protests against it.
In response, China has mounted large-scale military exercises across the strait, which featured simulations sealing off the island and attacking key Taiwanese targets.
China has also continued to send its military planes to breach Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), with 259 Chinese warplanes detected by the Taiwanese defense ministry in April, according to Taiwan News.
China-Taiwan tensions began in 1949 when the island split off from mainland China after a bloody civil war. Since then, Beijing has not recognized Taiwan’s independence.
