TAIPEI - Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te warned that countries in the region would be China's next targets should Beijing seize the democratic island, as he insisted on the need for Taiwan to dramatically shore up its defences.
Speaking to AFP in his first interview with a global news agency since taking office in May 2024, Mr Lai said he was confident Parliament will approve an extra US$40 billion (S$50.45 billion) budget to fund crucial defence purchases, including arms from the US.
China's President Xi Jinping has warned Washington against selling weapons to Taiwan, but Mr Lai said the US will stand by Taiwan and will not need to use it as a "bargaining chip" wi th Beijing.
Mr Lai said if China were to take Taiwan, Beijing would become "more aggressive, undermining peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and the rules-based international order".
"If Taiwan were annexed by China, China's expansionist ambitions would not stop there," Mr Lai told AFP during an exclusive interview on Feb 10 at the Presidential Office Building in Taipei.
Taiwan sees its location at the centre of Asia-Pacific's so-called first island chain, which stretches from Japan to the Philippines, as critical to regional security and international trade.
China on Feb 12 called Mr Lai a "war instigator" for saying that Beijing would target countries in the region should it seize control of the self-ruled island.
"Lai Ching-te's remarks once again exposed his stubborn pro-independence nature, fully proving that he is a peace disruptor, crisis creator, and war instigator," foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a regular news conference. "No matter what Lai Ching-te says or does, it cannot change the historical and legal fact that Taiwan is part of China's territory."
China has competing territorial claims with Japan and the Philippines, while the Taiwan Strait is a major artery for global shipping.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, whose country hosts several US bases and around 60,000 American troops, suggested in November that Tokyo could intervene militarily if China attacked Taiwan, drawing a furious response from Beijing. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos has also warned the archipelago nation, where US troops have access to nine military bases, would "inevitably" be dragged into a war over Taiwan.
Mr Lai said: "In this changing world, nations belong to a global community – a situation in any one country would inevitably impact another."
Ahead of US President Donald Trump's planned meeting with Mr Xi in Beijing in April, Mr Lai said Taiwan welcomed any talks that helped maintain the status quo.
"We believe President Trump is undertaking a difficult peace-building effort, which entails safeguarding US interests and deterring Chinese expansionism in the short term," he said.
He said the US did not need "to frame Taiwan as a bargaining chip in any discussions with China", adding: "In the context of US-China trade competition, China seeks far more from the US than the US does from China."
Washington cut formal diplomatic ties with Taipei in 1979 in favour of Beijing, but the US still remains Taiwan's most important security backer and biggest arms provider. But the US has long maintained "strategic ambiguity" when it comes to putting boots on the ground to defend the island.
Chinese military pressure on the island has escalated under Mr Xi, who has tied taking Taiwan to his vision of the "great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation". China deploys warships and fighter jets around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, and has launched six rounds of large-scale drills since 2022, most recently in December
Mr Xi's recent purge of his top generals has sp arked speculation about what it might mean for Beijing's timeline to potentially attack Taiwan, which some US officials have suggested could happen in 2027.
While the removal of so many Chinese generals was "indeed an unusual situation", Mr Lai told AFP it did not change Taiwan's need to be prepared. "We must have the capability to deter China's aggression at any time," he said. "We want to ensure that, for China, there is never a day that is a good day to invade Taiwan."
Mr Trump's efforts to force Taiwanese chipmakers to increase production capacity in the US and his insistence that Taiwan spend more on defence has fuelled concerns about his willingness to protect the island.
Taiwan has invested many billions upgrading its military and expanding its defence industry. But the island's forces would be massively outnumbered and outgunned in a conflict with China.
Under intense US pressure, Mr Lai has vowed to increase Taiwan's defence spending to more than 3 per cent of GDP in 2026 and 5 per cent by 2030.
"Taiwan is responsible for safeguarding our own country," Mr Lai said, insisting US-Taiwan relations were "rock solid".
He also expressed hopes for greater defence industry cooperation with Europe.
To reach the target, his government has proposed US$40 billion more in defence spending over eight years that would fund, among other things, a multi-layered air defence system dubbed the "T-Dome"
But legislation to enable the spending has been blocked 10 times since early December by opposition parties, which hold the most seats in Parliament and have used their majority to stymie Mr Lai's agenda.
US Democrat and Republican senators have criticised Taiwan's opposition and called on lawmakers to "work in good faith across party lines" to approve the spending measure.
Despite the delays, Mr Lai expressed optimism that the budget will win approval. "In a democratic society, every political party is ultimately accountable to the people," he said. "I am therefore confident this budget will win their support." AFP
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