Priyanka Tiwari
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Taiwon has planned to buy more weapons from the US in hopes to gain closer relations with them, as said in a statement released by an official of Taiwan.
In an interview on Tuesday, Taiwan's Deputy Foreign Minister, François Chichung Wu, said, “We are praying to do that and it will also serve as a warning to China not to annex Taiwan too easily. There is a way to have an unofficial security relationship with the US and believe that it is possible.”
After the election of President Donald Trump, who during his campaign said Taiwan needs to spend a whopping 10% of its GDP on military spending for the US to protect them, Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te sent a statement in February saying that Taiwan plans to increase its GDP spending on defense to 3%.
Wu said, “The consequence of increasing our defense budget, is that we will be forced to buy more arms from America since the Europeans do not want to sell us weapons. Even Japan is very cautious about this."
Wu went on to say that unlike the unexpected outcome of the meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Trump, where they essentially had no chance of salvaging the relationship after their catastrophic meeting, this was not how it would go between Taiwan and the US.
“He said, ‘If our president were to meet with the American president, it would be very favorable and diplomatic.’”
The possibility of sensitivity for high-level interactions between the US and Taiwan is drastic; There has not been a formal exchange of diplomacy between Taiwan and United States since the later changed its military recognition in 1979 to Beijing. This was due to a change in the core relations regard the supporting economy alongside politics for Taiwan.
Taiwanese presidents are issued travel documents with ‘transit’ clearly stated on them; this indicates the level of interaction there is between the two nations and how infrequently Taiwanese presidents are granted direct contact with their American counterparts.
Chip Curbs
In reference to stricter departments on the circulation of semiconductors, Wu stated that Taiwan will focus on shifting along with the new rules set into action rather than contesting it. "We have no way of fighting a decision set by the US,” he went on to say.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co along with several others were placed under tight restrictions by the US due to advance chips terminals allegedly being wasted to China and specifically Huawei Technologies Co. These allegations were made because there was failing to properly watch over the Chinese customers who were attempting to get the terminals.
Wu dismissed more unreasonable steps, such as building nuclear arms, which would invite China to take action against the island. This is while Taiwan seeks to independently construct its submarines and warships.
“The intent is to ensure that the Chinese President, upon waking up each day, considers conquering Taiwan to be the greatest emperor of China, but decides against it for the time being,” Wu claimed. “We send a message to the world - there is no reason for you to attack Taiwan.”
