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Taiwan’s Ma Ying-jeou warns of ‘crippling’ cost of paying US ‘protection money’ under Trump
- Island’s former leader also says the United States would not sacrifice its own troops in a conflict with the mainland
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Lawrence Chungin Taipei
Taiwan’s military budget would become a crippling financial burden if Taipei was forced to pay “protection money” to the US, a former leader of the island warned on the weekend, responding to a suggestion by US presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Ma Ying-jeou also cautioned that the United States was unlikely to sacrifice its own military personnel for the island if a war erupted with mainland China.
“Preparing for war is necessary, but high military expenditure is a burden Taiwan could not bear,” Ma told the Chinese Association in Thailand in Bangkok on Sunday.
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“Especially if military purchases became the absurd and contemptuous ‘protection money’ referred to by US presidential candidate Donald Trump. The defence budget would become a financial black hole that could cripple Taiwan’s finances and only benefit the US military-industrial complex.”
In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek in late June, Trump said it was “stupid” for the United States to offer protection to Taiwan for free, insisting that Taipei must pay more if it wanted Washington’s help to defend the island.
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Trump also expressed scepticism about the feasibility of defending Taiwan from so far away, saying, “Taiwan is 9,500 miles away [from the US]” but just “68 miles away from China”.
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