Views from Taiwan

OPINION:

Responding to China’s expansionism, gray zone warfare and maritime intrusions

Excerpts from remarks made June 25, 2026, to Taiwan’s Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience Committee.

In recent years, China’s gray-zone aggression, threats, and infiltration of neighboring countries such as Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines have caused unease among Indo-Pacific countries and the international community.

This is particularly evident in China’s recent maritime operations in the East and South China Seas and areas around the Taiwan Strait, ostensibly for law enforcement, patrol, or surveying purposes. These are no longer simply routine technical operations. Rather, they are acts of expansion performed under the pretext of law enforcement. Such actions undermine the status quo of security, peace, and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, as well as the rules-based international order.

The joint statement issued by the leaders of the G7 last week clearly underscored the importance of a free and open Indo-Pacific region based on the rule of law and reaffirmed their firm opposition to any unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the East and South China Seas and across the Taiwan Strait by force or coercion.

I want to emphasize once again: These authoritarian expansionist actions clearly demonstrate that China is the one attempting to change the status quo… Taiwan’s efforts to enhance its self-defense capabilities, maintain the status quo of peace and stability, and safeguard our free and democratic way of life are absolutely not acts of provocation.

Taiwan will respond to the G7’s call and will engage in collective defense and burden-sharing. We will continue to work closely with like-minded countries, standing together to demonstrate the strength of deterrence and jointly safeguard peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region…

In promoting whole-of-society defense resilience, we constantly emphasize that “the more prepared we are, the safer we will be.” In today’s tabletop exercise, we once again assessed our overall ability to respond to hybrid risks and threats through cross-ministerial and cross-disciplinary cooperation, discussion, and verification, thereby further enhancing Taiwan’s security and defense resilience.

Taiwan’s peace through strength initiative, and its essential contributions to world prosperity

Excerpts from “Interview with Jan Jekielek,” June 23, 2026, in The Epoch Times.

We will not let the Communist Party of China define who we are… [or] stop us from doing what we need to do to protect our country, to defend Taiwan, to defend our values, but also to really work with other partners internationally to assert… the shared interest in preserving the peace and stability of this region… in working together to support prosperity…

I think it’s reasonable to expect countries to invest in their own defenses, to shoulder those responsibilities… And that’s why President Lai has announced not only in our regular budget… but also we’ve presented a special budget or a supplementary budget that aims at reaching 5 percent of our GDP in defense spending by 2030…

Everything we’re doing today in strengthening Taiwan is to prevent an invasion, to prevent that scenario from happening… We also share the belief that peace has to be sustained through strength — and that’s from the painful lessons of history. And so, by preventing any kinetic scenario from happening, the peace of Taiwan and the security and stability of this region can be maintained, as well as the global prosperity that is ignited by the critical role that Taiwan plays in global technology supply chains…

We have a strong belief that democracy delivers. It’s not just an ideal, but we’re talking about a rules-based order, a rule of law, basic rights, and the freedom to innovate, the freedom to be creative, and that’s what really fosters economic growth… The PRC continues to champion their form of socialism and communism, while in Taiwan, we stand with our belief that economic freedom, market economics, [and] the political freedoms that are so important to our society, are really what delivers to the needs of the people…

Countering CCP’s escalating legal, psychological warfare and transnational repression

Excerpts from remarks on March 13, 2026, to a symposium held by Taiwan’s MAC.

The “Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress” adopted at this year’s Two Sessions contains highly vague provisions and could serve as a legal basis for shifting “promoting unification” from a slogan to concrete enforcement, potentially imposing on the people of Taiwan an obligation to “promote unification.” In the future, even remaining silent or not expressing a position on “unification” could be construed as a “failure to promote ethnic unity,” and individuals could be labeled as targets for “opposing Taiwan independence…”

In 2024, the CCP introduced the “22 Judicial Guidelines on Imposing Criminal Punishment on Diehard Taiwan Independence Separatists,” thereby institutionalizing its position of “opposing Taiwan independence” and “opposing external interference.” Through measures such as publishing lists of “diehard Taiwan independence separatists” and their “accomplices,” as well as establishing a tip-off mailbox for reporting “Taiwan independence,” the CCP has threatened officials and legislators in Taiwan with “lifelong accountability,” sought to create the false impression that it has jurisdiction over Taiwan, and generated a chilling effect among the public…

The intensity of transnational repression is likely to continue increasing, with targets extending beyond businesses, public officials, military personnel, and elected representatives to include even ordinary individuals… The government will respond prudently and will strengthen coordination and cooperation with the international community to jointly counter the CCP’s acts of “transnational repression.