Joseph Wu holds bilingual press conference to rally support against China

Joseph Wu holds bilingual press conference to rally support against China

2022-08-09

With China saying it will normalize drills east of the median line in the Taiwan Strait, foreign minister Joseph Wu on Tuesday held a bilingual press conference to raise international support for Taiwan. Wu said that Taiwan would not back down in the face of Chinese aggression. He warned that China’s ambitions would not end with Taiwan, and that China planned to link the East and South China Seas through the Taiwan Strait.

Joseph Wu
Minister of Foreign Affairs
China’s continued attempts to intimidate Taiwan will not panic us, nor will they defeat us. To Taiwan, the values of freedom and democracy cannot be taken away; they are built into our DNA.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu on Tuesday addressed China’s recent drills near Taiwan, in a bilingual press conference attended by members of the international press. Wu condemned China for using last week’s visit to Taiwan by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as a pretext for the drills. He said China was attempting to destroy the tacit median line in the Taiwan Strait. He warned the international community that China’s ambitions would not end with Taiwan.

Joseph Wu
Minister of foreign affairs
China is now determined to link the East and South China Seas through the Taiwan Strait so that this entire area becomes its internal waters. And its intentions are not likely to stop there, as the PLA has crossed the first island chain multiple times to conduct military exercises in recent years. In addition, in May this year, China signed a security agreement with the Solomon Islands, and intended to do the same with more Pacific countries. China’s influence also extends into Southeast Asia, South Asia, and even Africa and Latin America. China’s behavior towards Taiwan is merely a pretext. Its ambitions and impact is extending far beyond Taiwan. It is thus critical that all freedom-loving nations work together to explore means to respond to the expansion of authoritarianism.

Kathrin Hille
Financial Times
What is Taiwan’s concrete proposal or suggestion of how the international community could or should push the Chinese military back?

Joseph Wu
Minister of foreign affairs
That is something that we need to join our hands with like-minded partners [on] to make sure that the median line is still there, to safeguard peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait; and if you look at the East China Sea, or South China Sea, China’s doing the same.

The Taiwan correspondents of most major press organizations were present at the press conference, ready with questions for the foreign minister. Wu called on democracies to support Taiwan, and to resist Chinese hegemony. He said Taiwan would continue to engage in exchanges with its allies and other countries, and that it would not be intimidated by China.

Joseph Wu
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Recent surveys have also shown that the overwhelming majority of Taiwanese welcomed the visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. I am also confident that many more house speakers will visit Taiwan in the future. China wants to block Taiwan’s participation in the international community, to pressure us and squeeze us out. Given this situation, we in Taiwan can’t simply sit around with our hands tied waiting to be captured. What we in Taiwan strive for is for more countries and more leaders to support us.

Separately, Lithuania’s minister of foreign affairs on Monday issued a statement in which he said that the free world cannot and will not allow Taiwan to become a second Ukraine. In response, Taiwan’s foreign ministry called Lithuania a good friend with whom true feelings would emerge in times of adversity.