Taiwanese presidential front runner William Lai says Japanese support could help deter security threats from mainland China
- Lai says in newspaper interview that if the island is ‘invaded and annexed’ by Beijing it will ‘surely threaten Japan’
- The Taiwanese vice-president also says ‘without sovereignty, there will be no democracy, no freedom and no human rights’
“Taiwan is in a key [geographical] position … and we will fulfill our responsibilities, demonstrate our determination to protect the country and work with the camp of democracies to exert deterrence,” he told the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun in an interview published on Thursday.
“Japan is also in the Indo-Pacific region. If China invaded and annexed Taiwan, the Taiwan Strait would become the internal waters of China, which surely will threaten Japan.”
When discussing security in the Asia-Pacific in the interview, Lai raised Beijing’s frequent military exercises in the East China Sea, South China Sea, Taiwan Strait and the Sea of Japan, which is also known as the East Sea.
He said security cooperation between Japan and Taiwan would benefit the entire Asia-Pacific.
He did not say what form security cooperation could take, but said in a separate interview with the public broadcaster NHK that “any cooperation that could be had, can be had”.