Washington, Feb. 3 (CNA) Taiwan must be ready to make sacrifices and bolster its military preparedness in order to prevent a possible war with China, a former U.S. security official said Wednesday.
Matt Pottinger, who served as deputy national security advisor under former President Donald Trump, urged the U.S. and other nations to take "substantive" actions to help Taiwan avert a potential conflict with China.
People in Taiwan must also "understand how significant and dangerous" the situation in the Taiwan Strait has become, as a result of Beijing's expansionist ambitions, Pottinger said during an international relations conference at Florida International University.
"The people of Taiwan should really rally around their leadership and understand that they are going to have to make sacrifices," Pottinger warned. "There are things that they're going to have to do to prepare for war in order to hopefully deter war."
Meanwhile, Republican Senator Jim Risch told the conference that China's crackdown on Hong Kong last year had made the question of Taiwan's future "all the more urgent and serious."
The military balance of power between China and Taiwan is shifting, which is eroding conventional deterrence and putting the U.S. military and its allies at risk, Risch said.
In addition to Taiwan's importance as a democracy, its geography is also key to the security of U.S. allies, and its technology is critical to global competition with China, he said.
On those grounds, Risch said, Taiwan is "one of the most strategic issues we face in this decade," and "must remain a key priority" for the U.S.
Another speaker at the conference, Hong Kong democracy activist Nathan Law (羅冠聰), suggested the U.S. send a message that it is not intimidated by China. This can be achieved though greater interaction by the U.S. with Taiwan and its leaders, he said.
At the same time, the U.S. must recognize the "concrete threat" of military conflict in the Taiwan Strait, said Law, who fled to the United Kingdom last year for fear of persecution under Hong Kong's new national security law.
Citing conversations with reporters in China, Law said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had promised to tackle the Taiwan issue, in a bid to have his term limits lifted.
If that is true, Xi would likely feel pressured to accomplish such a goal by force, given that it would be "impossible" to do so using infiltration, soft power or other peaceful means, Law said.
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