Taiwan has said that it will not allow any powerful bully to invade because it is now a "full-fledged democracy" and is no longer ruled by a colonial power.
On the heels of the conflict that erupted between the United States and China following the recent visit of U.S. House of Representative Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, to Taiwan, representative of the Taipei Trade Office in Nigeria, Andy Yih-Ping Liu, said they're ready to fight back if provoked. However, he dismissed concerns of a potential invasion by China.
Liu revealed that Taiwan is well prepared for the Chinese invasion, which has been ongoing for the past 50 years, calling the Chinese aggressiveness towards the U.S. Speaker's visit to Taiwan "irrational, reckless and inflammatory."
“Taiwan military build-up has been facing the threat of China for half a century. Taiwan has built one of the strongest missile defence systems in readiness for China. “Almost every day, we have Chinese military aircraft flying around Taiwan, making a kind of harassment, but they never dared to fly over our territorial waters because they know that Taiwan will shoot them down. We will shoot them down immediately they cross over. Not just the military jet-fighter but the missile, because we have built one of the strongest defence missile systems in the world”, Liu said, adding that, “Taiwan has a lot of military build-up prepared for China’s invasion. We have bought a lot of weapons, and are working together with major strategic partners.
“We already have the capability of shooting down any kind of ballistic missile that is an intruder.”Reacting to the feud that erupted as a result of Pelosi’s visit, the Taiwanese envoy said: “The Chinese are making a fool of themselves by being so bullying and being so aggressive around the area because they are not just doing this kind of military threat or any kind of bullying against Taiwan. “They are actually putting direct military pressure on Japan, and even on Korea/ South Korea and now America is taking this seriously. But we have prepared for Chinese invasion for half a century. We don’t fear that. We are well prepared.”
Liu, a retired military officer, while boasting of his nation’s readiness to fight China, made reference to the Biblical David and Goliath, saying: “When Goliath showed up, David had to pick up his weapon immediately. He did not have to rely on or invite anyone to help him. This is what Taiwan has been doing in the past 10 to 15 years.
“Taiwan has built one of the largest U.S. jet-fighter, largest jet-fighter fleet in the world. We have built our military equipment like naval destroyer, submarine, among others. From air, land and sea and from the sub-marine forces, we are building that for our own protection.
“We have done everything within our power to protect ourselves. We do not have any natural resources. From education, military build-up, high technology industry development, and with good coordination with the rest of the world, we have to defend ourselves. We have our own democracy which we defend seriously.”
While many fear that after Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the next will be China’s attack on Taiwan, Liu said: “We are now building our own naval sub-marine. We have already built a lot of naval destroyers and frigates missile firing speed boats. We have the full capability of protecting ourselves because we know that after Russia invaded Ukraine, it taught the world a big lesson that we cannot rely on any of our friends because we cannot drag them into our war against any invader/ army. What NATO and the U.S. have done to help Ukraine demonstrates that Ukrainians are brave enough to pick up weapons and defend their own country”.
“During the first two weeks when Ukraine was invaded by Russia, many people around the world, including the media, thought that China was going to invade Taiwan.”The only thing is that we have been ready for 50 years. If they want to come, they can come and we will fight them off. After months of Russia invasion of Ukraine, the Chinese have not done anything yet, they just keep harassing us and making a fool of themselves. Russia and China are good friends, as well as allies, they demonstrate how the world can view them – as two big bullies, although they present themselves as big brothers.” They are two big bullies. We do not take them lightly. We take them seriously. Even the Ukrainian President said that the world has to be on the lookout after Ukraine, you have to pay attention to Taiwan. “We have prepared for all forms of invasion. That is why we do not rely on other countries to come and help us fight. We fight for ourselves, we are waiting until any kind of invasion comes to Taiwan. But whether the international society will help us, we will see how long that will persist and how sustainable it will be”, he stated.