As the Ukraine crisis unfolds, Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen has ordered the self-ruled island’s military forces and national security agencies to strengthen their combat readiness.
Tsai delivered instructions during a high-level national security meeting on Wednesday.
Taiwan set up a Ukraine working group last month to closely monitor the confrontation thousands of miles away in Europe, studying how Russia’s move could impact its neighbor, the communist regime in Beijing.
“Our national security agencies and military must ramp up their efforts to monitor and provide early warning of military developments in the Taiwan Strait and surrounding areas,” Tsai told the meeting.
Tsai’s remarks come amid growing speculation that the Ukraine crisis could be used by the communist regime in China to hasten its claim on Taiwan.
The regime views Taiwan as its own territory to be taken by force if necessary.
Tsai further said that “external forces” would attempt to sway the Taiwanese public by manipulating developments in Ukraine. She told government agencies to step up their guard against cognitive warfare from “external forces,” according to the statement.
Tsai also condemned Russia’s infringement on Ukrainian sovereignty, it stated. However, she noted that Taiwan is fundamentally different from Ukraine in terms of geostrategic factors, geography, and role in international supply chains.
On Wednesday, Beijing’s foreign ministry dismissed parallels between the issues of Taipei and Kyiv, accusing Taiwan of “seeking clout” by using the Ukraine crisis.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying reiterated the regime’s claim on Taiwan at a daily briefing.
“If Ukraine is invaded, the shock will echo around the world, and those echoes will be heard in East Asia and they will be heard in Taiwan,” Johnson said at a security conference in Munich. “People will draw the conclusion that aggression pays and that might is right,” he said.
