Although it remains in a state of constant alert, Taiwan does not believe that China will advance towards the island with military force
“What are the three biggest problems facing Taiwan? The first, China. The second, China. And the third, China.”
Foreign Minister Joseph Wu speaks with that forcefulness when referring to the difficulties that the island faces in establishing commercial relations with Latin American countries, including Argentina. “It is a distant country,” he acknowledges in a talk with the Argentine newspaper Clarín.
But, beyond the diplomatic interference of Xi Jinping’s government, the Foreign Minister warns that the world is already beginning to realize that it cannot fall into the hands of the Asian giant.
Military threat, hacking and broken promises to allied countries are some alarms that Taiwan raises with concern to allude to the repeated pressures from the People’s Republic of China. Those that, in some way, make it impossible for the island to approach South America and that, currently, only allow it to establish diplomatic relations with Paraguay.
In the case of Argentina, the arrival of Javier Milei to the Executive awakened a glimmer of hope, after the libertarian has spoken out on more than one occasion against the communism exercised by China. However, Xi’s government remains caught in the middle. For this reason, from the island they know that strengthening commercial ties with Argentina is not an easy task.
“It is a distant country but full of attractions,” defines Joseph Wu, during a conference given at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Taiwan in front of a group of journalists from all over Latin America.
In each of his words, Wu faces reality, which places China as an obstacle that is difficult to break commercially, despite the fact that they are the ones who have the semiconductor industry in their possession, the famous microchips with which they seek to captivate and get closer. in some way to the rest of the world.
For years, the Asian giant has claimed the island of Taiwan as its own and blocked any attempt to join international organizations such as the United Nations and the World Health Organization. It even deploys aggressive diplomacy so that few countries on the planet have Taiwanese embassies in their territory.
Argentina, for example, does not recognize Taiwan, which has its Commercial and Cultural Office in Buenos Aires, headed by Ambassador Florencia Miao-hung Hsie, located a few meters from the Casa Rosada.
“The threat from China that Taiwan faces is daily and incessant,” says Wu when consulted by Clarín.
“As in recent years, the median line of the Taiwan Strait has been a symbol for maintaining peace and stability. However, since August last year, China’s fighter jets have been constantly crossing the median line of the Strait, and have even sometimes gotten very close to Taiwan,” he warns.
“So they are increasing pressure on Taiwan in the hope that we will give in under their pressure, but we will continue to resist whether it is military coercion, economic coercion or this type of hybrid coercion,” Wu warns.
For the chancellor, more and more countries are concerned about peace and stability in the Strait and this gesture “will become a deterrent force for China.”
“This is because they are concerned that the economic impact caused by the war here will spread to the entire world,” he explains, giving as an example the Russian invasion of Ukraine that has already caused economic havoc.
A Taiwanese “safe passage” to break down the Chinese siege is its technological role, hand in hand with its flagship: TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company).
The Taiwanese firm is the world’s leading producer of microchips. 60% of these semiconductor products come from the island and more than 90% of the high-end chips.
Taiwan is thus transformed day by day and is an indispensable link in the global supply chain. For this reason, explains Wu, “the world has also realized that Taiwan cannot fall into the hands of China, because if semiconductors fall into their hands or if this supply chain suffers any impact, everyone will be affected.” .
