Taipei Cabinet spokesperson Lo Ping-Cheng released a statement on Monday, seeking to downplay individuals who have warned that “today’s Ukraine is tomorrow’s Taiwan.”
“In all areas, the two cannot be compared,” Lo stated, accusing people of “trying to inappropriately link Ukraine’s situation with Taiwan’s.”
The government official claimed individuals were seeking to use “this opportunity to manipulate the so-called (topic) of ‘today's Ukraine, tomorrow's Taiwan’” in an effort to disturb “people's morale.”
Calling the comparison “inadvisable,” the government representative outlined positions taken by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and Premier Su Tseng-chang.
The senior Taiwanese officials have repeatedly stated the island’s departments should step up efforts to combat “external forces using the Ukraine-Russia conflict to carry out cognitive warfare against us,” Lo stated.
The Taiwanese government has not identified unusual military activity or an escalation of troop movements since the Russia and Ukraine conflict erupted, although it has increased its alert level.
On Monday, Taiwan recorded seven Chinese aircraft that had entered its air defense zone but remained far from the actual island itself, in a repeat of previous behavior the government has called China’s “gray zone” warfare.
Taiwan’s statement comes days after the Chinese Foreign Ministry stated that the island is “not Ukraine,” as it remains an inalienable part of China. Speaking on Wednesday, the foreign ministry in Beijing claimed Taiwan’s connection to China “is an indisputable legal and historical fact.”
Taiwan maintained that it is an independent territory, strongly rejecting China’s territorial claims, stating only the island’s people can decide its own future.