Taiwan sees China taking lessons from Russia's Ukraine invasion

TAIPEI – China’s military is learning from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that any attack on Taiwan would have to be swift to succeed, but the Taiwan Strait would make that challenging, the island’s Defence Minister said on Friday.

The possible impact of the war on China’s military thinking on Taiwan, and how China could attack the island, has been widely debated in official circles in Taipei.

Taiwan Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said the Chinese military would have taken notes from the

Russian invasion of Ukraine,

which began one year ago, with Russia failing to take Kyiv in the war’s opening days.

“The Russia-Ukraine war has brought great lessons for them – they will definitely seek speed,” Mr Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of Parliament in Taipei, referring to China’s military.

He said that even if Chinese forces were planning a speedy attack, they would face difficulties trying to take the island in a sudden move as they would have to cross the Taiwan Strait that separates the two sides.

“They would still have to overcome this,” Mr Chiu said. “It wouldn’t be as fast as a week or two.”

China regards Taiwan as a renegade province to be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary. Beijing continues to mount almost daily military patrols near the island. Taiwan rejects China’s sovereignty claims and says it will defend its democracy and freedom.

“I’ve said it before – as soon as the guns sound, we will keep going to the end. But we absolutely will not provoke,” Mr Chiu said.

While Ukraine has won widespread public support in Taiwan, and Taiwan’s government has sent humanitarian aid, China has refused to condemn Russia, and the two countries announced

a “no limits” partnership

shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine.

China has said that it is a “naked double standard” to seek to conflate the issues of Taiwan and Ukraine as the island has always been part of China and the issue is entirely a domestic matter.

“Taiwan will continue to firmly support Ukraine,” the island’s President Tsai Ing-wen wrote in Facebook on Friday, to mark the first anniversary of the invasion. “I believe that when people who love democracy unite, democracy and freedom will win.” REUTERS