Taiwan has again urged the democracies of the world to help defend it against communist China as "a real possibility" of war looms on horizon.
The appeal was made by foreign minister Joseph Wu, who said democracies must ally with Taiwan to thwart Chinese expansionism. He said his country needs help.
Speaking on French TV, Wu reminded world democracies that Taiwan is "on the front line defending democracies from being taken over by the communist China." Taiwan is doing everything it can to deter China from invading it.
"We have been trying very hard in the last few years to beef-up our own defence capabilities and at the same time we also want to let the international community understand that Taiwan as a democracy has been threatened by China, which is an authoritarian country which is trying to expand its influence," noted Wu.
China's communist authoritarianism is proven by its actions in claiming ownership of the South China Sea, repressing human rights in Hong Kong and seizing Indian territory along the border with India in Indian-occupied Kashmir.
Closer to home, Wu said more than 30 warplanes of the People's Liberation Army Air Force had recently violated Taiwan's air defense identification zone.
"We feel that like-minded countries or fellow democracies need to pay more attention to this area and come to each other's help so that China's expansionist motivation can be deterred."
Wu said Taiwan appreciates the United States' "continuing to show its presence in this region."
"I think this is a show to the Chinese side that its military threat against other peace-loving countries wouldn't have been tolerated," said Wu.
He was referring to continuing freedom of navigation operations (FONOPS) conducted by U.S. Navy carrier strike groups in the South China Sea and the East China Sea. The U.S. now considers China, not Russia, its most dangerous strategic competitor.
The U.S. has sold more than $23 billion in weapons to Taiwan over the past 10 years, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.
The past few months has seen the U.S. accelerate the pace of its weapons sales to Taiwan to an unprecedented level. August alone saw a frenzy of U.S. arms deals with Taiwan. In August, the U.S. approved the sale of 66 Lockheed Martin F-16V Fighting Falcon air superiority jet fighters.
Also in this month, Taiwan said it planned to acquire U.S.-made Tomahawk cruise missiles capable of destroying a target 1,000 km distant, Harpoon anti-ship missiles and underwater "smart mines" to sink Chinese warships.
Taiwan will deploy these weapons systems to reinforce its shore defenses against an amphibious invasion by China across the 180 kilometer-wide Taiwan Strait.
