Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu says that Taiwan is committed to repelling a Chinese military invasion. That came in a recent interview with Australian broadcaster ABC, posted to ABC's website on Monday.
Wu says that Taiwan would "fight to the end," and that China would "suffer tremendously as well" if it decided to invade Taiwan.
Wu says that Taiwan's defense is in its own hands. However, he says that like-minded countries like Australia should come to Taiwan's aid.
The foreign minister says Taiwan hopes like-minded democracies will engage in further security and intelligence cooperation. He says that includes Australia, and that right now Taiwan and Australia enjoy "very good" relations.
Mr. Wu thanked Australia for its support of Taiwan's bid to join the CPTPP trade pact, which binds 11 countries including Japan, Australia and Singapore. He also says Taiwan was glad to see Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States form a trilateral security pact, known by the acronym AUKUS.
Wu is also welcoming growing cooperation between allies in the so-called Quad security dialogue. Those include the United States, India, Japan and Australia.
Minister Wu says he is happy to see a big country like Australia shoulder more responsibility for maintaining peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. But Wu says Taiwan's strategy must be different. He says Taiwan cannot follow Australia's example and acquire nuclear-powered submarines, but must instead prepare for asymmetric warfare.