Taiwan Foreign Minister Urges Single-Theater Defense of First Island Chain to Deter China

The first island chain ‘is no longer just a line on a map,’ Taiwanese Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung said.

Taiwanese Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung answers questions from media during an international press briefing in Taipei on July 19, 2024. I-hwa Cheng/AFP via Getty Images

TAIPEI, Taiwan—Countries should treat the first island chain in the Western Pacific as a single theater and coordinate closely to deter China, Taiwanese Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung has said.

Speaking at a forum hosted by the Taipei-based Formosa Republican Association on April 11, Lin said the strategic island chain stretching from Japan through Taiwan to parts of the Philippines and Indonesia “is no longer just a line on a map.”