Taiwan's Defense Minister says his country does not seek war with China

Taiwan is not seeking war with Beijing, and its policy is to build up a defensive, multi-level deterrence capability to make it harder for China to capture the island, Taiwan Defense Minister Wellington Koo said on Monday.

Democratically governed Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, has faced a stepped-up military and political pressure campaign from Beijing to accept sovereignty claims that the government in Taipei rejects.

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te on Sunday said that China views the annexation and "elimination" of Taiwan as its great national cause, telling Taiwanese military cadets not to give in to the defeatism of "the first battle is the last battle", a theory that Taiwan could collapse as soon as China launched an attack.

Asked at parliament by reporters how long Taiwan could hold out without US support in the event of a Chinese attack, Koo said that was not the point of their strategy.

Reuters