March 18, 2025 - Epoch Times
02:45
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| Time | Text |
|---|---|
| I think you've argued that the U.S. should officially say, yes, Taiwan is its own country. | |
| And there's traditionally been a lot of ambiguity. | |
| There's this policy of strategic ambiguity around this issue, even though obviously Taiwan has been its own country for a very long time. | |
| So why would you argue to do that now, to make it explicit? | |
| The same reason that Trump Went out on a limb and recognized Israel and Jerusalem as the capital and did the things that he needed to do to shore up somebody who's a friend, somebody who's an ally. | |
| Taiwan is strategically important to us, not just because they produce all those great chips at TSMC, but because of that strategic location, that geographic location, where those straits where 70% of the world's traded wealth goes through every year, where 70% of the world's population is centered around that geographical area. | |
| And what it means to us to make sure that that country remains independent. | |
| Why not pick a winner and a loser? | |
| Why not stand up to them? | |
| This is why I believe in a strong military. | |
| And deterrence. | |
| Because it's very hard. | |
| I mean, as much as I think China is powerful and on a pure relationship, and I don't want to have a nuclear war, I want to have a deterrence so that they realize that an amphibious assault. | |
| Take it from a Marine. | |
| It's not an easy thing to do. | |
| When you have a giant island like that who's well-prepared, that is a bristling defense, and you could really hurt yourself financially and strategically, economically, and any other way. | |
| I want to make sure that the quad is strong, that we have Japan, India, Australia, New Zealand all on the same team, not to mention South Korea. | |
| I want to make sure that China has a bunch of people in that area that make sure that they feel like, you know, if I do something out of line... | |
| That doesn't fit with the worldview of peace and prosperity? | |
| Then I'm going to be punished for it. | |
| I want them to feel that. | |
| Economically, it would be a huge hit on them. | |
| If they do that, they're going to have permanent sanctions until they reverse course. | |
| I want to make sure that militarily, they suffer dramatic casualties by invading an otherwise peaceful country that's been independent from them since the beginning of their existence. | |
| Since the Chinese government was established, Taiwan was established at the same time. | |
| Why do you think you have... | |
| Purview over this country when you're established essentially at the same time. | |
| That's not logical thinking. | |
| We realize that. | |
| It doesn't mean that Taiwan can't exist and have a lot of prosperity independently without being recognized. | |
| And I would say the same thing to people in Gaza, by the way. | |
| You don't have to be recognized as a country to be prosperous. | |
| Look at Taiwan. | |
| But if Taiwan's taken over by China, and look at what happened in Hong Kong, that's just a microcosm of what would happen to Taiwan. | |
| Plus the devastation of a military attack there. | |
| Who knows how many people would die. | |
| How many businesses would be forever changed. | |
| There would be no profitability anymore. |
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