Taiwanese citizens take the nation’s defense into their own hands: Interview with scholar Wen Liu · Global Voices
Filip Noubel

Portrait of Assistant Research Professor Wen Liu, photo used with permission
For people in Taiwan living under regular military threats from China, Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the West's responses to it have prompted queries about the Taiwanese military forces’ own readiness and resilience.
In the early days following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Taipei quickly put its support behind Kyiv and distanced itself from Moscow by joining the list of countries implementing sanctions. It continues to support Ukraine by sending official visits to neighboring countries sheltering Ukrainian refugees and offering reconstruction funds.
But Taiwan is also learning from Ukraine because it sees a parallel with its own relationship with China and possible future scenarios: should it be attacked or blockaded by Beijing, how will the US and Japan — the island's two strongest military, political, diplomatic, and economic allies — respond? Indeed, about half of the population of Taiwan expresses doubts its military forces would be able to defend the island against a Chinese military invasion. The big question for the Taiwanese is what level of military commitment the US will offer in the event of an attack from China. Indeed, the main document regulating Washington's defense obligations toward the island is the Taiwan Relation Act (TRA) which, in essence, maintains a policy of “strategic ambiguity.” Enacted in 1979 by the US Congress, this policy allows the US to sell military equipment to Taiwan but creates no obligation for the US to directly intervene militarily if China invades the island. At the same time, the US maintains about 50,000 military forces in Japan in close proximity to Taiwan.
Global Voices talked to Assistant Research Professor Wen Liu at Taiwan's Academia Sinica in Taiwan to understand how specific segments of Taiwanese society are preparing for a possible military invasion or attack on the island by Beijing. Wen earned her Ph.D. in Critical Social Psychology at the City University of New York and analyzes trans-Pacific geopolitics, queer movements, racial subjectivity, and national sovereignty from a psychological and affective perspective. In 2024, she will publish her book “Feeling Asian American: Racial Flexibility between Assimilation and Oppression” (University of Illinois Press) which offers insights into contemporary political discussions from the viewpoint of a diasporic Asian American scholar. She is also a queer activist, novelist, and translator.
The interview was conducted over email in English following and has been edited for style and brevity.
Filip Noubel (FN): You recently said at a Taiwan-Ukraine event that Taiwan is perhaps the only country whose army was initially a party’s army, and this explains the level of distrust from many Taiwanese. Could you elaborate and explain for audiences not familiar with Taiwan’s history?
FN: Given that Beijing is escalating military threats as it opposes any notion of Taiwan as an independent state, many in Taiwan have raised the issue of a need for strong civil mobilization. How is this taking place, and who is leading this movement?
FN: You also said that civil mobilization is a space where perhaps gender equality is at its strongest. Could you explain?
FN:  There is a lot of “Ukraine today, Taiwan tomorrow” talk pointing at the fact that Taiwan should learn from Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine as it cannot exclude a similar attack from China. What do you make of this comparison, and what have you learned from the Ukraine response, including the integration of queer troops in the Ukrainian defense forces?
WL: What Taiwan can learn from Ukraine is about the unpredictability of dealing with authoritarian regimes. There is no rationality of Russia’s invasion but its imperial ambition, similar to China’s. Ukraine had the opportunity to regroup after 2014’s invasion but Taiwan does not. What we can learn is how the civil society really pushed the state to reform its military structure and policy as well as increase the civilian capacity in defense and resistance. The lessons are that it’s never too late to start but we must start somewhere from the bottom up.