Taiwan will not be forced into talks by China: Defense chief
Taiwan's Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng (???) on Friday affirmed the military's stance that China cannot force Taiwan into talks with military coercion and the armed forces will do everything it can to defend the nation from a Chinese invasion.
Chiu made the remarks when asked by an opposition lawmaker about a Pentagon report released a day earlier that states China is developing military capabilities with the aim of forcing Taiwan into negotiations by 2027.
Kuomintang Legislator Wen Yu-hsia (???) said at a Legislative Yuan hearing that the United States report stated the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has set the goal of "developing the capabilities to counter the U.S. military in the Indo-Pacific region, and compel Taiwan's leadership to the negotiation table on Beijing's terms" by 2027.
She cited the U.S. Department of Defense's 2021 report on "Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China" when asking Chiu whether a cross-Taiwan Strait war would be inevitable if Taiwan refused to talk with China by that date.
In response, Chiu said the Chinese communist regime "cannot force us to do anything" using non-peaceful means.
The nation's armed forces are beefing up their combat capabilities with the aim of making Beijing think twice before launching an all-out war because it would have to pay a huge price if it invaded, he said.
On the sideline of the Legislative Yuan session, Chiu told reporters that he had no comment on the report nor its evaluation of the PLA, saying only that the defense ministry will continue to monitor the situation closely.
Amid concerns that Taiwan's military is no match for the PLA in terms of combat capability, Chiu said the military is developing asymmetric warfare to counter the growing capability of the PLA and is spending more on procuring new weapon systems while reforming its reserve force system.
Chiu said he has full confidence in the military, while calling on members of the media to report more fairly on the nation's armed forces.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel