Taipei casts wary eye on Beijing amid Ukraine crisis

TAIPEI • Taiwan is nervous that Beijing may take advantage of a distracted West to ramp up pressure on the island amid the crisis in Ukraine, but there have been no unusual manoeuvres by Chinese forces in recent days, said officials in Taipei.

The government, always on alert for what it views as Chinese provocations, last month set up a Ukraine working group under the National Security Council.

China views Taiwan as a renegade province to be reunified, by force if necessary. It has stepped up military activity near the self-governing island in the past two years.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen told a meeting of the working group yesterday that Taiwan must increase its surveillance and alertness on military activities in the region and tackle foreign misinformation, though she did not directly mention China.

Although Taiwan's government said the island's situation and Ukraine's are "fundamentally different", Ms Tsai has expressed empathy for Ukraine's situation because of the military threat that Taiwan faces from China.

Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu warned in two foreign media interviews this month that they were watching very closely to see whether China would take advantage of the Ukraine crisis to attack.

"China may think about using military action against Taiwan at any moment, and we need to be prepared for that," he told Britain's ITV News.

A senior Taiwan official familiar with the government's security planning said the chances of a sudden uptick in military tension are "not high", but that Taipei has been watching closely for any unusual Chinese activities.

The person pointed to the People's Liberation Army's joint military drills in areas between Taiwan's north-east and near the Miyako Strait close to Japan's southern islands, which have become more frequent in the past month or so. The drills included fighter jets, bombers and warships, and were meant to increase pressure on Japan, said the official, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.

A Japanese Defence Agency spokesman declined to comment.

Mr Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office, said yesterday that Taiwan's government, in concert with the West, was using Ukraine to "maliciously hype up" military threats and whip up anti-China sentiment.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said last Saturday that if Western nations failed to fulfil their promises to support Ukraine's independence, it would have damaging consequences worldwide, including for Taiwan.

Two Taiwan-based diplomatic sources said Chinese President Xi Jinping's primary focus at the moment was preparing for a tricky once-every-half-decade congress of the ruling party this year, where he will cement a historic third term in office.

Mr Su Chi, a former head of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council under the administration of former president Ma Ying-jeou, said Taiwan, like Ukraine, was caught between two great powers.

Mr Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin deal with their respective territorial claims very differently, added Mr Su, who runs the Taipei Forum think-tank. "So far, Xi has been firm but gradual, not lightning fast like Putin."

One Western security official familiar with policy planning towards China said Beijing was most likely looking at how the Ukraine situation develops in terms of sanctions on Russia. "It's probably seen as a laboratory by China, on what they might face in a Taiwan contingency," the official said.

REUTERS