TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Ahead of the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, TVBS commentator Wenchi Yu invited the former U.S. assistant secretary for Indo-Pacific security affairs, Randall Schriver, to discuss the changing global dynamics between the U.S., China and Taiwan.
"Taiwan is really key to the U.S. strategy and I think its importance has been growing," Schriver told TVBS. He pointed out that China's growing aggressiveness toward the island may mean that Taiwan needs to ready its defenses in any way, including investing in military weapons.
Though Schriver emphasized that Taiwan is in charge of its own defenses, he did point to the U.S. possible support should an invasion occur.
"It's in our law that Taiwan's wellbeing is in our interests," he said, adding "I think all of this weighs in the favor of the United States doing something to support Taiwan if it finds itself in that kind of position."
Even though global reliance on Taiwan's semiconductor sector may be a deterrent for China to conduct drastic measures to achieve unification, Schriver emphasized that making sure China knows it won't succeed militarily in the case of an invasion is still incredibly important.
