By Yimou Lee<\/p>\n
TAIPEI, Aug 3 (Reuters) \u2013 Taiwan\u2019s cooperation with the United States may be closer than many imagine, the island\u2019s Defence Minister Wellington Koo said on Friday, as it strives to deepen military \u200bexchanges with the U.S. Pacific Command to boost defence capabilities.<\/p>\n
The \u200ccommand helps maintain peace and security in the Indo-Pacific, Koo said, and it views Taiwan as occupying a key position in the first island chain that stretches from Japan through Taiwan and the Philippines.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur cooperation with the United States may be far closer \u200cthan \u200bmany people imagine,\u201d Koo said in an interview \u2060with a small group of \u2060reporters, as he voiced gratitude for Washington\u2019s support.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe continue to enhance our defensive combat capabilities through military exchanges and cooperation with the Pacific Command at all levels.\u201d<\/p>\n
Such efforts have helped Taiwan boost its defensive \u200bcombat capabilities through military exchanges, he said.<\/p>\n
MOST IMPORTANT INTERNATIONAL BACKER<\/p>\n
The United States is Taiwan\u2019s most important international backer and arms supplier, despite a lack \u2060of formal diplomatic ties.<\/p>\n
China, which views democratically \u2060governed Taiwan as its own territory despite the island\u2019s \u200brejection of the sovereignty claim, has repeatedly denounced military exchanges between Taipei and \u200bWashington.<\/p>\n
China has stepped up military pressure around Taiwan, including coast \u200cguard operations off its Pacific coast, an area Taiwan sees as vital for wartime supplies from allies.<\/p>\n
The effort has spurred drills by Taipei simulating Chinese escalation, including the prospect of a blockade.<\/p>\n
Koo said a Chinese blockade of Taiwan \u2060would carry major risks for Beijing, which relies on external trade and the importance of its ports to global shipping.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn fact, a maritime blockade would pose \u2060an even greater challenge \u200cfor China,\u201d Koo said, as it would have \u2060a severe impact at a time when the Chinese \u200beconomy faces \u200cdifficulties, and was likely to unleash heavy international \u200bsanctions.<\/p>\n
China would also \u2060have to weigh the domestic political risks of any blockade for President Xi Jinping, Koo added.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder such circumstances, whether China\u2019s regime could remain stable and whether Xi Jinping\u2019s rule could be secured would be a very, very big challenge,\u201d Koo said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe Xi Jinping must consider this.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Yimou Lee; Editing \u200bby Clarence Fernandez)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Yimou Lee TAIPEI, Aug 3 (Reuters) \u2013 Taiwan\u2019s cooperation with the United States may be closer than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-800436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}