Joseph Wu, Taiwan's Foreign Minister speaks to WION Photograph:( WION )
Joseph Wu, the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Republic of China (Taiwan) spoke to WION about China’s authoritarianism and why recent military threats and skirmishes with its neighbours are a distraction from domestic upheavals brewing within the country
Joseph Wu, the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Republic of China (Taiwan) spoke to WION about China’s authoritarianism and why recent military threats and skirmishes with its neighbours are a distraction from domestic upheavals brewing within the country.
“China is trying to export its authoritarian order, and Taiwan happens to be on the frontline “, Wu said.
He also alluded to the recent crackdown in Hong Kong within the ambit of the newly formulated laws that seek to police dissent, and the case of Mongolia, where students are being prohibited from learning in their own language.
Calling China’s recent display of military might a “scapegoat”, Wu shed light on why he thinks the communist country is engaging all its enemies at once.
“There is a traditional wisdom about authoritarianism. Whenever they have domestic difficulty, they will try to find a scapegoat outside their country to create crisis to divert domestic attention. And Taiwan may be a very convenient scapegoat for the Chinese government”, he said.
Joseph Wu shed light on the need for Taiwan to build more friendships and gather trust in the international community to effectively counter Chinese aggression. “We need to be very careful. We need to build more friendship with other countries, and India is a country we want to be friends with,” Wu said.
Wu also spoke extensively about problems that Jinping is facing from within. “The first is the trade war between the United States and China, and it’s causing the Chinese economy to slow down… And the second is the pandemic… It’s about the origin of COVID-19, and COVID-19 is causing economic slowdown internationally. China relied on trade with other countries, and it’s causing Chinese economic slowdown also.”
He also spoke about the recent flooding that hit China. “In the last couple of months, there was very serious flooding in the central part moving to the northern part in China.”
On the Chinese leadership and the issues within, this is what Wu had to say: “So a general economic slowdown for an authoritarian country is going to deprive top leadership from legitimacy that the government is able to improve the livelihood of the people”
“It doesn’t seem to me that the leadership is able to control everything. There are other factions and other leaders that may be willing to challenge top leadership.”
On China’s claims of defeating the virus, and normalisation of life, he said - “The Chinese economy might be picking back up from the lowest point when the pandemic is [sic] hitting China very hard… The current growth might not be enough to cover what they have already lost”.