This photo taken on November 19, 2025 shows village secretary Sean Lee putting Taiwan’s civil defence booklets in mailboxes at the Shilin district in Taipei.
| Photo Credit: AFP

The United States is Taiwan’s most important international backer and arms supplier, despite the absence of formal diplomatic ties. File.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te pledged to strengthen the island’s defences in the face of escalating Chinese threats, saying in a New Year’s address on Wednesday (January 1, 2025) that Taiwan was a crucial part of the “line of defence of democracy” globally.

China claims Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy, is part of its territory and has vowed to annex the island by force if necessary.

“Authoritarian countries such as China, Russia, North Korea and Iran are still collaborating to threaten the international order that is based on rules. This has severely influenced the Indo-Pacific region and the world’s peace and stability,” Mr. Lai said in his address.

Beijing has used a variety of tactics in recent years to increase pressure on Taiwan, from sending warships and fighter jets toward the island on a near-daily basis to pressuring Taiwan’s diplomatic allies to switch their recognition to China.

In response, Taiwan has been reforming its military and buying weapons from the United States, its biggest unofficial ally.

“Taiwan must be prepared for danger in times of peace. It must keep increasing the national defence budget to strengthen its defence capabilities and show determination to defend the country. Every single person has the duty to protect Taiwan’s democracy and security,” Mr. Lai said.

Mr. Lai also issued a warning about the need to uphold democracy domestically, addressing recent political controversies in Taiwan.

The Kuomingtang-led opposition passed three bills last month after legislators got into a physical tussle over them. The bills are designed to make recall votes for politicians more difficult and change the budget allocation for the central government. Critics said another of the bills would paralyse the Constitutional Court.

Mr. Lai’s party has said the bills, which still need to be accepted by the executive branch, are a threat to democracy.

“Domestic competition among political parties is a part of democracy. But domestic political disputes must be resolved democratically, within the constitutional system. This is the only way democracy can continue to grow,” Mr. Lai said.

A Taiwan’s fighter jet lands at an airbase in Hsinchu, northern Taiwan, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024, as Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it detected Chinese naval ships and military planes engaged in training. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
| Photo Credit: AP

China’s secretive military appears to be up to something around Taiwan, but it’s unclear whether it’s a formal military drill.

Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said on Tuesday (December 10, 2024) that it has detected a dozen Chinese naval ships and 47 military planes in the past 24 hours but no live-fire activity as in previous military exercises. The deployment covers a wider area this time, with additional ships going beyond Taiwan into other parts of the Pacific, defense officials said at a news conference.

Lt. Gen. Hsieh Jih-sheng said China’s navy is creating two walls — one at Taiwan’s perimeter and another outside the first island chain, which extends south from Japan and through Taiwan to the Philippines. “The message they are sending is very simple: The Taiwan Strait is ours,” he said, referring to the waters between Taiwan and China.

The military has been bracing for possible drills by China in response to a recent overseas trip by Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te that included Hawaii and Guam, an American territory.

China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and opposes the self-governing island having official interactions with other countries, and in particular, the United States. Lai spoke with U.S. congressional leaders by phone while in Guam last week. While the U.S., like most of the world, doesn’t formally recognize Taiwan as a country, it is the largest supplier of arms to the island of 23 million people for its defense.

Without any announcement from China on military drills, Taiwan officials are calling the ongoing activity a training exercise. Hsieh noted that training can become drills, and drills can become war.

“It’s in the status of regular training,” he said. “But under the status of normalized training, it’s able to mobilise military forces on such a large scale and carry out exercises in such a large area.”

China, which views Mr. Lai as a separatist, held major military exercises around Taiwan following his inauguration in May and his National Day speech in October. It also held a major drill after Nancy Pelosi, then the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, visited Taiwan in 2022.

Taiwan’s military set up an emergency response center on Monday in response to the increased Chinese naval activity and the announcement of flight restrictions in seven zones off China’s east coast. The restrictions are in place until Wednesday.

“We have noticed that there are no live-fire drill activities in the seven exercise areas as planned in the past,” said Hsieh, who heads the office of the deputy chief of general staff for intelligence.

Two German warships await orders from Berlin, their commander said, to determine whether next month they will be the first German naval vessels in decades to pass through the disputed Taiwan Strait, at the risk of stoking tensions with Beijing.

While the U.S. and other nations, including Canada, have sent warships through the disputed strait in recent weeks, it would be the German navy’s first passage through the strait since 2002.

China claims sovereignty over democratically governed Taiwan, and says it has jurisdiction over the nearly 180km (110 miles) wide waterway that divides the two sides and is part of the South China Sea.

Taiwan and the United States say the Taiwan Strait is an international waterway.

“The decision has not been taken yet,” the commander of the naval task group, Rear Admiral Axel Schulz, told, adding the weather would play a role.

“We are showing our flag here to demonstrate that we stand by our partners and friends, our commitment to the rules-based order, the peaceful solution of territorial conflicts and free and secure shipping lanes.”

Before their possible passage through the strait next month, the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and the replenishment ship Frankfurt am Main plan to call in Tokyo on Tuesday (August 20, 2024). They will also make stops in South Korea and the Philippines.

They will also take part in exercises in the region with France, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and the United States.

Over the last four years, Beijing’s military has increased its activities in the narrow strait.

Germany, for whom both China and Taiwan, with its huge chip industry, are major trade partners, has joined other Western nations in expanding its military presence in the region as their alarm has grown over Beijing’s territorial ambitions.

In 2021, a German warship sailed through the South China Sea, for the first time in almost 20 years.

Last month, the Luftwaffe deployed fighter jets to Japan for the first joint drills there.

Mr. Schulz said he was not planning for any specific security measures should the warships under his command cross the Taiwan Strait, calling it a “normal passage” similar to sailing through the English Channel or the North Sea.

However, he anticipated any passage would be closely monitored.

“I expect the Chinese navy and potentially the coastguard or maritime militia to escort us,” he said, describing this as common practice.

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te. File photo
| Photo Credit: AP

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te welcomed what he called the “largest-ever” delegation of foreign lawmakers to Taiwan and said on Tuesday that it showed the importance of democracies uniting, even as Beijing pressured members of the delegation not to visit.

“This demonstrates the support and the value various other countries place on Taiwan,” Mr. Lai said. “It also sends an important message to democratic countries around the world. Maintaining democracy requires unity, and we must protect democracy together.”

Mr. Lai made his remarks at a conference in Taipei held by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), a group of hundreds of lawmakers from dozens of countries concerned about how democracies approach Beijing.

Mr. Lai said at the conference that Taiwan would work with other democracies to protect democracy from “the threat of authoritarian expansionism.”

IPAC has long been despised by the Chinese government,but the group continues to expand. On Tuesday, IPAC leaders announced lawmakers from six new countries were joining the alliance, as well as two lawmakers from Taiwan, a first for the island.

In a written statement, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said IPAC “has no credibility at all”. “China firmly opposes any form of official exchanges between countries with diplomatic ties with China and the Taiwan authorities,” the statement said.

Hong Kong:

The United States and China resumed semi-official nuclear arms talks in March for the first time in five years, with Beijing’s representatives telling U.S. counterparts that they would not resort to atomic threats over Taiwan, according to two American delegates who attended.

The Chinese representatives offered reassurances after their U.S. interlocutors raised concerns that China might use, or threaten to use, nuclear weapons if it faced defeat in a conflict over Taiwan. Beijing views the democratically governed island as its territory, a claim rejected by the government in Taipei.

“They told the U.S. side that they were absolutely convinced that they are able to prevail in a conventional fight over Taiwan without using nuclear weapons,” said scholar David Santoro, the U.S. organiser of the Track Two talks, the details of which are being reported by Reuters for the first time.

Participants in Track Two talks are generally former officials and academics who can speak with authority on their government’s position, even if they are not directly involved with setting it. Government-to-government negotiations are known as Track One.

Washington was represented by about half a dozen delegates, including former officials and scholars at the two-day discussions, which took place in a Shanghai hotel conference room.

Beijing sent a delegation of scholars and analysts, which included several former People’s Liberation Army officers.

A State Department spokesperson said in response to Reuters’ questions that Track Two talks could be “beneficial”. The department did not participate in the March meeting though it was aware of it, the spokesperson said.

Such discussions cannot replace formal negotiations “that require participants to speak authoritatively on issues that are often highly compartmentalized within (Chinese) government circles,” the spokesperson said.

Members of the Chinese delegation and Beijing’s defence ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

The informal discussions between the nuclear-armed powers took place with the U.S. and China at odds over major economic and geopolitical issues, with leaders in Washington and Beijing accusing each other of dealing in bad faith.

The two countries briefly resumed Track One talks over nuclear arms in November but those negotiations have since stalled, with a top U.S. official publicly expressing frustration at China’s responsiveness.

The Pentagon, which estimates that Beijing’s nuclear arsenal increased by more than 20% between 2021 and 2023, said in October that China “would also consider nuclear use to restore deterrence if a conventional military defeat in Taiwan” threatened CCP rule.

China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control and has over the past four years stepped up military activity around the island.

The Track Two talks are part of a two-decade nuclear weapons and posture dialogue that stalled after the Trump administration pulled funding in 2019.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, semi-official discussions resumed on broader security and energy issues, but only the Shanghai meeting dealt in detail with nuclear weapons and posture.

Santoro, who runs the Hawaii-based Pacific Forum think-tank, described “frustrations” on both sides during the latest discussions but said the two delegations saw reason to continue talking. More discussions were being planned in 2025, he said.

Nuclear policy analyst William Alberque of the Henry Stimson Centre think-tank, who was not involved in the March discussions, said the Track Two negotiations were useful at a time of glacial U.S.-Chinese relations.

“It’s important to continue talking with China with absolutely no expectations,” he said when nuclear arms are at issue.

NO FIRST-USE?

The U.S. Department of Defense estimated last year that Beijing has 500 operational nuclear warheads and will probably field more than 1,000 by 2030.

That compares to 1,770 and 1,710 operational warheads deployed by the U.S. and Russia respectively. The Pentagon said that by 2030, much of Beijing’s weapons will likely be held at higher readiness levels.

Since 2020, China has also modernised its arsenal, starting production of its next-generation ballistic missile submarine, testing hypersonic glide vehicle warheads and conducting regular nuclear-armed sea patrols.

Weapons on land, in the air and at sea give China the “nuclear triad” – a hallmark of a major nuclear power.

A key point the U.S. side wanted to discuss, according to Santoro, was whether China still stood by its no-first-use and minimal deterrence policies, which date from the creation of its first nuclear bomb in the early 1960s.

Minimal deterrence refers to having just enough atomic weapons to dissuade adversaries.

China is also one of two nuclear powers – the other being India – to have pledged not to initiate a nuclear exchange. Chinese military analysts have speculated that the no-first-use policy is conditional – and that nuclear arms could be used against Taiwan’s allies – but it remains Beijing’s stated stance.

Santoro said the Chinese delegates told U.S. representatives that Beijing maintained these policies and that “‘we are not interested in reaching nuclear parity with you, let alone superiority.'”

“‘Nothing has changed, business as usual, you guys are exaggerating’,” Santoro said in summarising Beijing’s position.

His description of the discussions was corroborated by fellow U.S. delegate Lyle Morris, a security scholar at the Asia Society Policy Institute.

A report on the discussions is being prepared for U.S. government but would not be made public, Santoro said.

‘RISK AND OPACITY’

Top U.S. arms control official Bonnie Jenkins told Congress in May that China had not responded to nuclear weapons risk reduction proposals that Washington raised during last year’s formal talks.

China has yet to agree to further government-to-government meetings.

Bejing’s “refusal to substantively engage” in discussions over its nuclear build-up raises questions around its “already ambiguous stated “no-first-use” policy and its nuclear doctrine more broadly,” the State Department spokesperson told Reuters.

China’s Track Two delegation did not discuss specifics about Beijing’s modernisation effort, Santoro and Morris said.

Albergue of the Henry Stimson Centre said that China relied heavily on “risk and opacity” to mitigate U.S. nuclear superiority and there was “no imperative” for Beijing to have constructive discussions.

China’s expanded arsenal – which includes anti-ship cruise missiles, bombers, intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarines – exceeded the needs of a state with a minimal deterrence and no-first-use policy, Alberque said.

Chinese talking points revolved around the “survivability” of Beijing’s nuclear weapons if it suffered a first strike, said Morris.

The U.S. delegates said the Chinese described their efforts as a deterrence-based modernisation programme to cope with developments such as improved U.S. missile defences, better surveillance capabilities, and strengthened alliances.

The U.S., Britain and Australia last year signed a deal to share nuclear submarine technology and develop a new class of boats, while Washington is now working with Seoul to coordinate responses to a potential atomic attack.

Washington’s policy on nuclear weapons includes the possibility of using them if deterrence fails, though the Pentagon says it would only consider that in extreme circumstances. It did not provide specifics.

One Chinese delegate “pointed to studies that said Chinese nuclear weapons were still vulnerable to U.S. strikes – their second-strike capability was not enough”, said Morris.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

TAIPEI:

Taiwan is not seeking war with Beijing, and its policy is to build up a defensive, multi-level deterrence capability to make it harder for China to capture the island, Taiwan Defence Minister Wellington Koo said on Monday.

Democratically governed Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, has faced a stepped-up military and political pressure campaign from Beijing to accept sovereignty claims that the government in Taipei rejects.

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te on Sunday said that China views the annexation and “elimination” of Taiwan as its great national cause, telling Taiwanese military cadets not to give in to the defeatism of “the first battle is the last battle”, a theory that Taiwan could collapse as soon as China launched an attack.

Asked at parliament by reporters how long Taiwan could hold out without U.S. support in the event of a Chinese attack, Koo said that was not the point of their strategy.

“It’s not an issue of how long we can last. Our strategy, our hypothesis, is asymmetric warfare to build our multi-domain deterrence, and during this process to weaken” China’s ability to invade, he said.

As part of ongoing military reforms, Taiwan is promoting the idea of “asymmetric warfare”, to make its forces, which are much smaller than China’s, more mobile and harder to attack, with for example vehicle-mounted missiles and drones.

China says Lai is a “dangerous separatist” who risks conflict by pushing for Taiwan’s formal independence. Lai says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future, and has repeatedly offered talks with Beijing but been rebuffed.

Koo said it was China who is the “trouble maker” and provoker of tensions across the Taiwan Strait.

“We have never sought war. We are very clear that our entire strategy is defensive operations,” he added.

U.S. President Joe Biden has upset the Chinese government with comments that appeared to suggest the United States would defend Taiwan if it were attacked, a deviation from a long-held U.S. position of “strategic ambiguity”.

Koo said the whole point of U.S. strategic ambiguity was to complicate China’s plans for any invasion of Taiwan.

“They will never be able to rule out the possibility of a U.S. military intervention,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Taipei:

Taiwan on Thursday condemned China as “shameless” after Beijing’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations thanked the world for its concern about a strong earthquake on the island.

China claims democratically-governed Taiwan as its own territory and also claims the right to speak for it on the international stage, to the fury of Taipei given Beijing’s communist government has never ruled the island and has no say in how it chooses its leaders.

On Wednesday, after the 7.2 earthquake hit eastern Taiwan, killing 10 people, China’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the U.N., Geng Shuang, mentioned at a meeting about children’s rights that another speaker had brought up the quake in “China’s Taiwan”.

China is concerned about the damage and has expressed condolences to Taiwan and offered aid, he said, according to a transcript of his remarks carried on the Chinese mission to the U.N.’s website.

“We thank the international community for its expressions of sympathy and concern,” he added.

Taiwan’s foreign ministry expressed anger at the remarks.

The ministry “solemnly condemns China’s shameless use of the Taiwan earthquake to conduct cognitive operations internationally”, it said, using Taiwan’s normal term for what it views as Chinese psychological warfare.

This shows China has no goodwill towards Taiwan, the ministry added.

Taiwan’s government has already thanked governments and leaders around the world for their messages of concern and offers of support, including from the United States, the island’s most important international supporter despite the lack of diplomatic ties.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)