Taiwanese Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng Says China Will Be Able To Launch A Full-Scale Invasion Of Taiwan By 2025

Taiwan's Minister of National Defence Chiu Kuo-cheng today (Oct 6) warned that China will be militarily capable of launching a full-scale invasion of Taiwan by 2025.

Chiu's dire warning came after Taipei reported incursions by 150 Chinese air force planes in the southern and southwestern part of its air defense zone over four days beginning last Friday, the same day China marked its National Day.

As per Taiwanese Defence ministry, 672 PLA airplanes have flown into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone this year. In the first five days of October, a total of 150 Chinese aircraft entered Taiwan airspace, with 56 planes on Oct 4 the largest ever number of incursions in a day.

"China has the capability to invade Taiwan now," and will be capable of mounting a full scale invasion by 2025, Chiu told reporters before a legislative session convened to review a special military budget, when asked if China would be capable of invading Taiwan by 2025.

The current tensions across the Taiwan Strait "are really the grimmest I have seen in more than 40 years of military service," Chiu said during a joint session of lawmakers.

While noting that invading Taiwan right now would incur a high cost for China, by 2025, Chiu said that Beijing would be able to lower that cost and launch a full-scale invasion.

On Tuesday, Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen warned of “catastrophic consequences” if it were to fall to China. She reiterated that Taiwan is committed to defending itself if its democracy is threatened.

“A failure to defend Taiwan would not only be catastrophic for the Taiwanese; it would overturn a security architecture that has allowed for peace and extraordinary economic development in the region for seven decades,”, she wrote in an article titled 'Taiwan and the Fight for Democracy' in Foreign Affairs magazine.

Vibrantly democratic and Western, yet influenced by a Chinese civilization and shaped by Asian traditions, Taiwan, by virtue of both its very existence and its continued prosperity, represents at once an affront to the narrative and an impediment to the regional ambitions of the Chinese Communist Party, she stated.

“Emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, authoritarian regimes are more convinced than ever that their model of governance is better adapted than democracy to the requirements of the 21st century,” she added in her article.

“The great majority of us regard democracy as the best form of government for Taiwan and are willing to do what is necessary to defend it,” she wrote.

The U.S has called out China’s “provocative military activity” near Taiwan.

Also Read: Taiwan Condemns Largest Ever Incursion By Chinese Air Force, 77 Warplanes Enter Taiwanese Defence Zone Over Last Two Days