an island with no formal diplomatic ties
with most of the world
is about to welcome a high-ranking u.s
envoy
on wednesday u.s ambassador to the u.n
kelly kraft
travels to taiwan an island which
neither the united states
nor the united nations recognized as a
country
in fact up until a few days back
official u.s policy
restricted interactions between u.s and
taiwanese diplomats
now that's because china has always
claimed taiwan
as a part of its territory and the u.s
like other u.n member states
recognizes china not taiwan
but u.s secretary of state mike pompeo
has overturned the u.s
restrictions saying they were meant to
court appease
the chinese government naturally the
change in u.s rules and kellycraft's
upcoming visit
haven't gone down well in china
we advise u.s secretary of state pompeo
to have a clear understanding of history
to stop manipulating taiwan related
issues to stop acting against the trend
and not to go further down this wrong
and dangerous path
otherwise he'll be severely punished by
history
and earlier i spoke to taiwan's
representative to germany
shirji way and i began by asking him
what taiwan expected from kelly craft's
visit
we are expecting with great pleasure and
honor to welcome the visit the official
visit i would like to support another
official visit of the ambassador of usa
to the united nations
madame kerry craft i think it keeps
assigned to the world
that just like pompeo the state
secretary or uss
pointed out in his state
press release that taiwan shares
the value the same value with the usa
we share the democracy we are both two
democracies
we share the common values of individual
freedom the rule of law and
respect for human dignity and
because the china because the influence
of china
taiwan has been treated very very unfair
for the last
four or even five decades right
so ten days i'm sorry to interrupt uh
the main question really is that
uh uh kelly kraft's visit this uh
closeness if you like between the trump
administration and the
government in taiwan do you see this
carrying over
into the new biden administration which
will be taking over in just a matter of
days
where people would say that would be the
last departing gift
of the trump government for taiwan but i
think
it is also it is also in uh
a part of the inheritance for the trump
government
from the trump government to the biden
government because
both democrats and republicans
of the usa are not worth
our friends has been have been always
been the friends of the taiwan
government
so i think it's going to be a very good
influence
at one of the good influence for the
biden government
they would take it all because it goes
into the same direction
which what to would also do
for taiwan because it's in the interest
of the usa not in the interests of the
trump government i would like to say
that
right now the relations between the us
and taiwan have historically been
supported by the so-called taiwan
relations act and essentially the u.s
is required by this law to support
taiwan with arms sales
so it can defend itself against china
but there is no legal requirement
for the u.s to actually defend taiwan in
the
event of an attack by china do you think
there needs to be a change
in this the taiwan relations
act is to help maintain
the security the step stability the
freedom security and stability
in the western pacific not in the taiwan
street
so the importance of taiwan the
strategic importance of taiwan
is not only for taiwan it's also
for the usa for japan for south korea
and for all the asian
countries in the south china sea i could
even say for australia
new zealand and india so
if should that be so there comes to
the conflict award
if if china tried to invade taiwan
that would mean not only a war between
taiwan china
but also a world declared from the china
to the usa to japan to the
indo-pacific i would say that so it's
the question
should be put in another way if taiwan
is going to be embedded by china
then it means is that is it worth
of china against the world of freedom
so i would say if china would do that
usa japan and i would
say even the eu eu countries because
their interests their trade interest
will be damaged should taiwan be taken
over
by china stark warning there from
xi jinwei taiwan's representative to
germany thank you so much
for joining us sir and taiwan has lived
with that threat of a chinese invasion
for seven decades
but with china dramatically building up
its navy and military
in recent years the threat has risen to
new levels
dw international editor richard walker
looked at that threat
as part of a larger special report
february 2020 taiwan's air force
releases
this image to the media it shows a
taiwanese jet fighter
intercepting a chinese bomber flying
near its airspace
a rare glimpse of the dangerous tension
in the skies
so we are defending our skies we are
defending our waters
at every moment in the last few decades
this constant pressuring from the
chinese side
is like a stress test on multiple levels
it's partly aimed at demoralizing the
taiwanese public
but it's also simply wearing down
taiwan's planes
every time taiwan has to scramble a
fighter jet
that not only weakens the airframe
because every fighter jet that that's
made has a limited number of hours that
it can fly
and it also takes the pilots away from
other activities that would
improve their readiness and perhaps
most importantly all of this probing
generates
hugely valuable insights for the chinese
military
james fennell who led us naval
intelligence in the pacific
explains you have to know your
adversary's defensive uh structure
and its network its air defense radar
system where are the weaknesses where
are the strengths how long does it take
a fighter
f16 fighter in taiwan to get off the
ground to respond to a jh-7 coming from
this airbase
they're mapping all of that out in the
cyber realm
too china continues to probe and chip
away
this unassuming building in shanghai
reportedly houses the military
hacking unit 61398 that taiwan suspects
of launching many attacks
they're constantly hitting taiwan with
cyber attacks with disinformation
misinformation attacks
and of course espionage and with its
open society
taiwan is highly vulnerable to
disinformation campaigns
for those of us watching from the
outside we owe it to the people of the
region to sit
up and pay attention to a flash point
that could blow up into a devastating
conflict
that special report of course from dw
international editor richard walker who
joins me now
on the line richard good to have you is
taiwan
in immediate danger well but
i as we just saw in that clip then we
heard from the representative here
in in germany taiwan is under pretty
much
constant uh threat um almost
under uh constant attack whether it be
cyber attack or other activities that
are in this kind of gray zone so kind of
hostile acts that are below the level of
of
outright uh military action now
china says that it prefers to seek
unification
its stated goal by peaceful means um and
that it would like to
implement a one country two systems
approach in taiwan
of the kind that we've seen in hong kong
but of course if you're sitting in
taiwan over the last couple of years and
watching what's been happening in hong
kong
that doesn't look all that appealing
right now one country two systems
essentially collapsed
under the weight of its own
contradictions and china
is rounding up all sorts of of
democratic activists and putting them in
jail
so if china is seeking to unite with
taiwan
by persuasion it's going about it in a
pretty
funny way so that leaves the question
well what kind of military
options might it be looking at and that
is very important to
stress here that the chinese do reserve
the right they say
to use force to unite taiwan with china
so in the course of this film we look at
three different scenarios one kind of
continuing at this chipping away that
we've just seen there
one where they uh mount an attack uh on
an
outlying territory you know in the way
that we saw russia do
uh with crimea and then finally a
full-scale invasion the most dangerous
scenario
what is the role you see the united
states playing
in the event of such an attack by china
well it's interesting because as we just
heard from the representatives there
and as you pointed out in your
introduction there beresh
the united states is not fully committed
to defending taiwan in the event that
there is
an invasion it is committed to providing
taiwan with weapons
and it is also committed to providing
maintaining the capability
uh to defend taiwan uh but not actually
promising to defend it
so there's a debate going on about that
about whether that is too mushy whether
the us needs to make a cast iron
commitment with supporters of that move
saying
that that would stabilize the situation
that would create a clarity strategic
clarity in this
in this flash point area but others say
no this would be too provocative towards
china
and also runs the risk of a taiwanese
government behaving irresponsibly
just knowing that it has that american
support i think one thing to point out
is that everyone agrees that taiwan is
particularly vulnerable when the united
states is weak or distracted
if you look at what's going on in the
united states at the moment
uh if you can imagine whether it would
be any in any position politically to
step in in favor of taiwan at the moment
that's a big question so taiwan is very
much on edge at the moment
just about 30 seconds left richard what
does this mean for the incoming biden
administration
and its relations with taiwan well the
bible administration we know is going to
want to stabilize the united states and
stabilize the situation
internationally too so it's not going to
want to rock the boat massively but
there's an early test that we all need
to be watching out for
joe biden says that he wants to call a
summit of democracies
partly as a way of kind of generating
unity in the face of chinese
authoritarianism does he invite taiwan
to that
or does he not that is a big dilemma for
the incoming administration
richard walker thank you so much
you