Letters | For Taiwan, a wake-up call from a war far away

Name: Protesters storm Armenia’s parliament over Azerbaijan peace deal to end Nagorno-Karabakh fighting
Uploaded: 2021-03-12T11:00:20.000Z
Duration: 2 min 38 s
Description: Protesters storm Armenia’s parliament over Azerbaijan peace deal to end Nagorno-Karabakh fighting

Taiwan may have its own army, but if and when mainland Chinese forces land on the island, it will have little chance of escaping defeat

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Taiwanese sailors salute the island’s flag on the deck of the Panshih supply ship after taking part in annual drills, at the Tsoying naval base in Kaohsiung, in January 2018. Photo: AFP

Letters

Published: 7:00pm, 12 Mar 2021Updated: 7:00pm, 12 Mar 2021

In November 2020, after the Azerbaijani forces captured Shusha city from the Armenians, Armenia was forced to sign a ceasefire agreement, returning seven occupied districts to Azerbaijan. For people outside the Caucasus, what did the war teach us?

Before the war, the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast together with seven adjacent districts was not under Azerbaijan’s rule but ruled by an Armenia-backed regime called “the Republic of Artsakh”, which is not recognised by any UN member state.

The Republic of Artsakh believed that it had two advantages when it came to defence: its mountainous geography and firm military and financial support from neighbouring Armenia. Since their victory in the first Nagorno-Karabakh war, both Artsakh and Armenia might have believed Azerbaijan would not take military action against them. However, the second war ended this myth.

The Taiwan problem is somewhat similar to the one in the Karabakh region. Due to China’s civil war, Taiwan is not under the rule of the People’s Republic of China and has its own government and army. The current Tsai Ing-wen administration has been reluctant to recognise the “one-China” principle, and most Taiwanese people naively believe that they can deter the People’s Liberation Army from landing on the island with their army and mountainous terrain (“Don’t cross Hong Kong, Taiwan ‘red lines’, China tells US”, March 7).

The second Karabakh war should be a wake-up call.

02:38

Protesters storm Armenia’s parliament over Azerbaijan peace deal to end Nagorno-Karabakh fighting

Taiwanese must think about these questions: if and when mainland forces land in Taiwan, can the Taiwanese army expel them? Which countries will provide material support? Taiwan has mountains for defence, but its military and diplomacy are definitely disadvantaged.

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.css-sioo19{color:#c79a00;}Letters | For Taiwan, a wake-up call from a war far away

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Taiwan may have its own army, but if and when mainland Chinese forces land on the island, it will have little chance of escaping defeat

Letters | For Taiwan, a wake-up call from a war far away

Taiwan may have its own army, but if and when mainland Chinese forces land on the island, it will have little chance of escaping defeat