Why taiwan fears outside the world will abandon it if china invades

World NewsWhy Taiwan fears outside the world will abandon it if China invadesBy Caitlin DoornbosPublishedMay 29, 2025, 1:36 p.m. ET

TAIPEI — Taiwanese officials are worried their country will have difficulty attracting international support should China launch an invasion — as the self-governing island’s independence is

recognized by just 12 countries worldwide.

“Ukraine is a [United Nations] member state, and Taiwan is not,” Liang Wen-Chieh, deputy minister of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, told The Post last week. “Therefore, if there is war

between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, we will undoubtedly receive much less aid from the international community than Ukraine.”

American and Taiwanese officials have estimated China will be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027 after rapidly modernizing its military over the past two decades.

Taiwan national flag during the daily flag ceremony at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei, Taiwan on April 29, 2025. AP5Deputy Minister of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council Liang

Wen-Chieh said he believes Taiwan would receive less world support that Ukraine has should China invade its territory. Mainland Affairs Council

“The reason why the year 2027 is mentioned so many times is because it is the junction where the current term of [Chinese President] Xi [Jinping] will end that year and the next term will

begin,” Liang said. “So in order to stay in power, Xi will have to possibly use force against Taiwan.”

China and Taiwan have no diplomatic relations, and Beijing refuses any kind of communication with the island. Though China claims Taiwan as its own, the island is entirely self-funded,

self-governed and otherwise operates as an independent, democratic country.

Still, most of the world does not recognize Taiwan’s independence, primarily because doing so means crossing the Chinese Communist Party.

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The 12 countries that currently recognize Taiwan include Belize, Guatemala, Haiti, the Marshall Islands, Palau, Paraguay, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the

Grenadines, Eswatini, Tuvalu, and the Vatican.

Even the US adheres to the so-called “One China” policy, which acknowledges China’s ambition to bring Taiwan under its control, but does not take sides on the issue.

Beijing regularly threatens any nations that attempt to recognize Taiwan’s sovereignty, with Chinese President Xi Jinping considering unification of his country and the island a top

priority.

The People’s Republic of China also continually threatens Taiwan itself, launching military exercises in the waters surrounding the island. 

Still, only about a quarter of the island’s population believes Beijing will attempt to annex the island within the next five years, according to Kuan-Chen Lee, a fellow at Taiwan’s

Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR).

“More than 60% of our respondents say that China is the most important threat facing Taiwan,” he said.

goals. Getty Images

One thing working in Taipei’s favor is global skepticism of the China-Russia axis following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“When [the Ukraine War] broke out in 2022, everyone thought about, ‘Today Ukraine, tomorrow Taiwan.’ We’re also thinking about that right now,” said INDSR research fellow Ming-Shih Shen.

“China supports Russia in its war. And the day when China invades Taiwan, and how will Russia support or help China?

“Recently, you can see that Xi Jinping joined the military parade in Moscow [to mark V-E Day]. And many experts or analysts think that maybe Xi Jinping and Putin already formed some

agreement.”

in World War II, in Red Square in central Moscow on May 9. via REUTERS

While Liang worried the threat wouldn’t be enough to secure the world’s support, Ukrainian Armed Forces Cmdr. Oleh Shyriaiev told The Post he believes the international community would come

to Taiwan’s aid should another Goliath invade a David.

“Civilized capitalist countries will be protecting the world from the plague that is communism,” he said by phone from the battlefield. “The political system, both in Russia and China, is a

hybrid, quasi-Communist creation, so I do not think that the collective West will abandon Taiwan without help.

“Our mainstay is that together we have achieved victory over Hitler, and we will do the same together again — we will achieve victory over Putin [and Xi].”

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