Does Taiwan Truly Want to Be Prepared to Endure the First Strike?

Does Taiwan Truly Want to Be Prepared to Endure the First Strike?

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

May 2, 2020

 Translation of an Excerpt

The havoc wreaked by the global COVID-19 pandemic is in full swing; the prospects for cross-Strait relations have left people at unease, and the two superpowers, the United States and China, have been flexing their muscles in Taiwan’s periphery and the South China Sea. Accidental conflicts could erupt at any time. Being situated in a hot point for conflicts over Taiwan, the black clouds of war lead people into airs of suffocation. President Tsai Ing-wen, in an exclusive interview with CNN, indicated that after enduring the first strike from the Mainland, Taiwan hoped that other countries in the entire world would stand up and exert pressure on Beijing.

As the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, before deciding to embark on the path of war, she must first of all have clear-cut guidance for the war; otherwise, she should not lightly talk about war. If it were only for the delight of the tongue, but she did not responsibly ponder how to precisely guide the war, then that would be foolhardy bravado of the moment. A war in the Taiwan Strait would be a tragedy for all people across the Strait; we have no way of knowing beforehand how the Mainland would cope with the endless escalation of conflicts between the US and China, nor can we conjecture on war or peace across the Strait, but peace is the fundament policy for survival and development of Taiwan, necessitating self-help so as to get help from others. If we ourselves could not fulfill our obligations to the fullest in order to maintain peace, how could we pin our hopes on our countrymen and other countries to sacrifice the blood of their sons to salvage an endgame of failure that had been directed with blunder?

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