US protectorates getting nervous: Taiwan says it needs to be 'stronger, more united, more resolute' after Afghanistan

Hong Kong Free Press
Thu, 19 Aug 2021 18:53 UTC

© Taiwan Gov’t

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen.

Afghanistan's return to Taliban rule following the withdrawal of US forces shows Taiwan needs to be "stronger and more united" in ensuring its own defence, President Tsai Ing-wen said Wednesday.

Democratic Taiwan's 23 million people live under the constant threat of invasion from authoritarian Beijing which views the island as its own territory and has vowed to one day seize it.

Washington remains Taiwan's most important unofficial ally and is bound by an act of Congress to sell it defence weaponry.

But the sudden departure of US troops from Kabul has sparked discussion in Taiwan as to whether the US can be relied upon to come to Taipei's defence.

Tsai addressed those concerns directly in a Facebook post on Wednesday.

"Recent changes in the situation in Afghanistan have led to much discussion in Taiwan," she wrote.

"It's not an option for us to do nothing on our own and just to rely on other people's protection," she said in the post.

She also said Taipei cannot rely on "momentary goodwill or charity of those who will not renounce the use of force against Taiwan" in a clear reference to Beijing.

China has ramped up military, diplomatic and economic pressure since Tsai's 2016 election, as she sees Taiwan as "already independent" and not part of its "one China".

Beijing's hawkish state media has delighted in the US pullout from Afghanistan, publishing a series of fiery editorials predicting that Washington will not come to Taiwan's aide in its hour of need.

Analysts have warned that Afghanistan and Taiwan are not easy comparisons.

"(Taiwan) is a core interest for the US in that it is a well-functioning democracy, loyal ally, (with) a capable military and directly standing up to America's most important competitor," Robert Kelly, an international relations expert at Pusan National University, wrote on Twitter.

"Afghanistan was on the fringe of US interests. A better analogue... is Israel."

Comment: The world is noticing. Here's Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia's Security Council, in comments to Moscow's Izvestiya on Thursday:

"The confidence of the military and political leadership of the Americans and their allies that they fully controlled the situation in Afghanistan led to ignorance and underestimation of the real situation," Patrushev said.

"Ordinary Afghans are paying the price for Washington's mistakes. American and European troops are evacuating military personnel and citizens of their states, while the Afghans who collaborated with them are mostly being left to their own devices."

He said the situation has parallels with the one Kiev finds itself in, "where Washington has brought [the government] to power and continues to find support for it."

"The US is pumping this country with weapons Americans themselves don't need and closing their eyes. But, in fact, they are supporting burgeoning neo-Nazism, the growth of extremism, crime, drug trafficking, interethnic and sectarian strife."

"At the same time, Kiev obsequiously serves the interests of overseas patrons, striving to enter NATO," he argued. "But was the ousted pro-American regime in Kabul saved by the fact that Afghanistan had the status of a US ally, while not being part of NATO?"

"A similar situation awaits supporters of the American choice in Ukraine. Where neo-Nazis are capable of coming to power, the country is heading for disintegration, and the White House at some point will not remember its Kiev supporters," Patrushev said.