Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) says that a recent British parliamentary report that warns about a conflict over Taiwan is reasonable but hopes it is wrong. Chiu made the comments on Thursday during an interview in advance of a legislative hearing.
The report released Tuesday by the U.K. House of Commons Defence Committee says that a conflict over Taiwan is “potentially only years away.” It also recommended that the U.K. should work with allies such as the United States and France to “prepare for a range of actions by China against Taiwan.”
Chiu says that while he believes the intelligence in the British report is sound, it discusses many hypothetical scenarios that the ministry does not need to comment on. He says many such reports have come out and the ministry considers them all to be useful references, but analyzing an enemy’s behavior is done gradually and the response will also be gradual. However, he adds that everyone hopes that these scenarios will never come to pass.