Taiwan must rely on itself for defence: Foreign Minister responds to Trump's criticism

Taipei: Taiwan must rely on itself for defence and will likely keep raising spending and modernising the military given the threat it faces from China, Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung said on Friday in response to criticism from Donald Trump.

US former President Trump, the Republican candidate in a rematch with President Joe Biden, said in an interview published this week that "Taiwan should pay us for defence" and that the island had taken American semiconductor business.

The United States is the most important international backer and arms supplier for Taiwan, which China claims as its own. Despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties, Washington is bound by law to provide the means for the island's defence.

But Taiwan has no formal defence agreement with the US, as Asian neighbours Japan and South Korea do, since Washington terminated a previous treaty with Taipei in 1979 when it switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing.

Biden angered China in 2022 by saying US forces would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, a deviation from a long-held US position of "strategic ambiguity".

Asked about Trump's comments, Lin told foreign reporters in Taipei that "we pay great attention to" them, and Taiwan-US relations are built on the bipartisan support Taiwan enjoys in the United States.

"I think everyone has a consensus on the main point, which is the China threat," said Lin, who took up his post on May 20 as part of the cabinet of newly elected President Lai Ching-te.

"In fact on national defence, we must rely on ourselves - this is the precondition. Since the start of Taiwan's democratisation over the past 30 years, we have stood alone against China's threat," he added.

In the past eight years Taiwan's defence spending has doubled and is now at 2.5% of GDP, Lin said. "I expect this will continue to rise."

All countries must "work hard", though, given China's defence spending is also rising, he added.

But Taiwan is also reforming its military, Lin said, pointing to examples like extending conscription to one year from four months.

Taiwan's government has made defence modernisation a priority, including developing its own submarines, and has said many times the island's security rests in its own hands, especially given Taipei's diplomatic isolation.

China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, and has rebuffed repeated offers of talks from Lai, who Beijing calls a "separatist". He rejects China's sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwan's people can decide their future.

Lin said Taiwan needed to pay attention to but not be constrained by China's centennial goals, including the building of a world class military by 2049, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

"We must be prepared to face a possible Chinese invasion, but we must be united," he said.

"We hope that every day when Xi Jinping gets up in the morning, that even though he has a timetable for the future that he says 'not today'" for attacking Taiwan.