In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera, outgoing Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said he expects China to attempt to manipulate the upcoming Taiwanese presidential election.
According to Wu, a member of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), China could possibly use disinformation and misinformation campaigns instead of large-scale military forces to turn the election in their favor.
"Whenever China tries to interfere in our elections in a forceful way, it tends to backfire," Wu said, recounting how Beijing would test-fire missiles during Taiwan's election cycle. The practice initially started during the island nation's 1996 presidential elections, and has been continuing ever since.
"If the Chinese are interested in the election results here in Taiwan, I don’t think that they will do anything as major as what we saw last August or this past April like large-scale military exercises. [But] if the Chinese do that, I’m sure that people are going to look at China in a very negative way."
However, he also warned that the power of China is centralized to its President Xi Jinping. If Beijing believes the election in Taiwan is not proceeding in its favor, it might still resort to military threats as well.
China could also threaten to end the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, a trade treaty between Taipei and Beijing signed in 2010. Alternatively, China could use hybrid warfare tactics such as infiltrating Taiwanese society using spies or through social media.
Taiwan is a self-governing island Beijing claims is a part of its territory, something the island nation's residents refuse. Since then, Taipei has been defending its democracy against Beijing's plan for unification.
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"For Taiwan itself, we need to have a very rational, very moderate policy to prevent China from having any excuse to launch a war against Taiwan," said Wu. "But at the same time, it is also necessary that we need to arm ourselves, we need to have advanced capabilities so that China understands that using force against Taiwan will not be an easy task."
Economic slowdown, authoritarian ambitions contribute to China's desire to invade Taiwan
During the interview, Wu highlighted that China is now experiencing an economic slowdown while "trying to export its authoritarianism through different kinds of mechanisms." (Related: China preparing to launch an invasion of Taiwan, warns Chinese journalist.)
"If you look at the Chinese government's policies, they are creating an economic environment that is not friendly anymore. For example, they have an anti-espionage law," the minister added. "They can check business operations, they can detain people [and] they can prohibit companies from doing certain things."
"They are exporting their Belt and Road Initiative, and they are also exporting digital authoritarian mechanisms to the Global South — contrary to our shared beliefs in freedom and democracy, protection of human rights, rule of law and all this."
In a separate interview with the Epoch Times in August, House Select Committee on China Chair Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) warned that these escalating economic crises in the mainland may push the Beijing regime to invade Taiwan.
Gallagher explained that as a "semiconductor superpower," Taiwan plays an essential role in U.S. military technology. If Taipei were to fall under Beijing's control, it could enable China to wield economic leverage.
Similarly, Wu explained in his interview that the global consequences if China were to attack Taiwan would be so much worse than what the world witnessed in Ukraine. The Russia-Ukraine war saw food shortages, energy problems and high inflation. In a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, it could be more.
Thus, Gallagher and Wu both stated in their respective interviews the need to prevent Xi from invading Taiwan. The congressman said: "We must go to great lengths to ensure that Xi never wakes up thinking he can actually pull off a Taiwan invasion."
Learn more stories about a potential conflict between China and Taiwan at WWIII.news.
Watch Brannon Howse of "Worldview Report" and David Zhang of the Epoch Times discussing the possibility of China invading Taiwan as early as 2024.
This video is from the Worldview Report channel on Brighteon.com.
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