TAIPEI, Taiwan: Taiwan’s foreign minister on Wednesday said the island will defend itself “to the very last day” if attacked by China.
Joseph Wu said China’s attempts at conciliation while engaging in military intimidation are sending “mixed signals” to the island’s residents.
China claims Taiwan as its own territory to be won over peacefully or by force.
Wu noted China flew 10 warplanes into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone on Monday and deployed an aircraft carrier group for exercises near Taiwan.
“We are willing to defend ourselves, that’s without any question,” Wu told reporters. “We will fight a war if we need to fight a war, and if we need to defend ourselves to the very last day, then we will defend ourselves to the very last day.”
China does not recognize Taiwan’s democratically elected government, and leader Xi Jinping has said “unification” between the sides cannot be put off indefinitely.
“On the one hand they want to charm the Taiwanese people by sending their condolences, but at the same time they are also sending their military aircraft and military vessels closer to Taiwan aimed at intimidating Taiwan’s people,” Wu said at a ministry briefing.
“The Chinese are sending very mixed signals to the Taiwanese people and I would characterize that as self-defeating,” Wu said.
The vast improvements in China’s military capabilities and its increasing activity around Taiwan have raised concerns in the US, which is legally bound to ensure Taiwan is capable of defending itself and to regard all threats to the island’s security as matters of “grave concern.”
Speaking in Washington, State Department spokesman Ned Price reaffirmed the US commitment to Taiwan. “The United States maintains the capacity to resist any resort to force or any other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security or the social or economic system of the people on Taiwan,” Price said Wednesday.
The naval drills being conducted in waters off Taiwan were meant to help China “safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests,” the army said Monday, using language often interpreted as being directed at Taiwan’s leadership that has refused to give in to Beijing’s demands that it recognize the island as part of Chinese territory.
Taiwan and China split amid civil war in 1949, and most Taiwanese favor maintaining the current state of de facto independence while engaging in robust economic exchanges with the mainland.
China has created conditions for greater economic integration, while also targeting some communities such as pineapple farmers in hopes of weakening their support for the island’s government.
Chinese diplomatic pressure has been growing also, reducing the number of Taiwan’s formal diplomatic allies to just 15 and shutting its representatives out of the World Health Assembly and other major international forums.
Taiwan has responded by boosting its high-tech industries and unofficial foreign relations, particularly with its key partners the US, Japan and others, and by building up its own defense industries, including a submarine development program, while buying upgraded warplanes, missiles and other military hardware from the US
Meanwhile, the US Navy says the carrier Theodore Roosevelt and its strike group reentered the South China Sea on Saturday to “conduct routine operations.” It is the second time the strike group has entered the waterway this year as part of its 2021 deployment to the US 7th Fleet area of operations.
Taiwan will fight ‘to the very last day’ if China attacks
https://arab.news/nmfxk
Taiwan will fight ‘to the very last day’ if China attacks
- China’s attempts at conciliation while engaging in military intimidation are sending “mixed signals” to the island’s residents, says Taiwan FM
Shamima Begum’s case revived after top European court’s intervention
- European Court of Human Rights challenges British govt’s citizenship deprivation order
- Begum, 26, left London as a teenager to marry a Daesh fighter, with concerns she was trafficked
LONDON: The longtime appeal by Shamima Begum to return to the UK has been revived after the European Court of Human Rights challenged the British government’s block on her return.
The 26-year-old, who left east London aged 15 and traveled to Daesh-held territory in Syria in 2015, had her British citizenship stripped by the then home secretary, Sajid Javid, The Times reported.
The Strasbourg court’s intervention means the UK must now consider if it acted unlawfully under the framework of the European Convention of Human Rights in stripping her citizenship in 2019.
Begum traveled with two friends to Syria. There, she became a child bride to Dutch national Yago Riedijk and had three children who all died as infants.
The court is examining whether the 2019 decision breached the ECHR’s Article Four, which prohibits slavery, servitude and forced labor.
As part of the examination, it could be found that the UK failed in its duty to identify Begum as a potential victim of trafficking and protect her from harm.
Begum’s journey to Syria made national headlines in the UK. The Times newspaper later discovered her whereabouts at a prison camp in Syria operated by Kurdish security forces, where she remains today.
In stripping her citizenship, Javid said the decision was “conducive to the public good.”
He also argued she was eligible for Bangladeshi nationality through her parents, to avoid rendering her stateless.
However, Bangladesh has said repeatedly that Begum is not a citizen of the country.
Begum’s lawyers, from the firm Birnberg Peirce, filed a submission to the Strasbourg court which argued that the UK failed to ask fundamental questions before stripping her citizenship, including concerns over child trafficking.
Gareth Peirce said the UK could now confront previously ignored questions as a result of the court’s intervention, providing “an unprecedented opportunity.”
She added: “It is impossible to dispute that a 15-year-old British child was lured and deceived for the purposes of sexual exploitation.
“It is equally impossible not to acknowledge the catalogue of failures to protect a child known to be at risk.”
The Strasbourg court’s move meant that it was “impossible now not to have real hope of a resolution,” she said, adding that the Begum case raised profound questions about the UK’s responsibility to victims of grooming and trafficking.
Despite years of litigation, Begum has failed to overturn the citizenship deprivation order. She has stated her desire to return to Britain.
In 2020, the Special Immigration Appeals Commission found that conditions in the camp where she is held, Al-Roj, were inhuman and degrading, but that national security considerations prevented any change to her case.
Later, the Supreme Court ruled that Begum was ineligible to return to Britain to take part in the appeal against her citizenship deprivation.
The Strasbourg court could reject appeals by Begum’s lawyers after considering the UK Home Office’s response to its questions.
If the latest appeal is upheld, however, ministers would have to “take account” of the court’s judgment. The court’s rulings are technically binding but lack an enforcement mechanism.
The Strasbourg court is now set to consider written submissions from both sides before deciding whether the case should proceed to a full hearing. A final judgment could take many months.
A Home Office spokesman said: “The government will always protect the UK and its citizens. That is why Shamima Begum — who posed a national security threat — had her British citizenship revoked and is unable to return to the UK.
“We will robustly defend any decision made to protect our national security.”
Maya Foa, CEO of Reprieve, a charity that has campaigned for the return of women and children from Syria, said: “This case only reached the European court because successive UK governments failed to take simple steps to resolve a common problem.
“While our security allies have all been bringing their people home, Britain has been burying its head in the sand. Casting British men, women and children into a legal black hole is a negligent policy that betrays a lack of faith in our justice system.”
