\n A colourful Taiwanese tycoon unveiled plans Thursday to train more than three million \"civilian warriors\" to help defend the democratic island in the event of a Chinese invasion, donating TW$1 billion ($33 million) of his own money.\n<\/p>\n
\n Robert Tsao, 75, is one of Taiwan's most successful businessmen and founded major microchip maker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC).\n<\/p>\n
\n He has been increasingly outspoken against Beijing, and his donation comes after China's military put on a huge show of force to protest US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taipei last month.\n<\/p>\n
\n Taiwan lives under constant threat of invasion by China, which claims the self-ruled island as part of its territory to be seized one day -- by force if necessary.\n<\/p>\n
\n For a week after Pelosi's visit, China sent warships, missiles and fighter jets into the waters and skies around Taiwan, its largest and most aggressive exercises since the mid-1990s.\n<\/p>\n
\n Tsao, who donned body armour for his announcement, warned it would be \"an intentional slaughter and vicious war crime and crime against humanity\" if China were to use force against Taiwan.\n<\/p>\n
\n The tycoon said he would put TW$600 million towards training three million \"black bear warriors\" in the next three years who could work alongside the military.\n<\/p>\n
\n Another TW$400 million will be used to train 300,000 \"marksmen\" with shooting skills.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Taiwan outgunned -\n<\/p>\n
\n Tsao, who no longer holds any position or title with UMC, portrayed the risk posed by China as existential.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The Chinese Communist Party's threat to Taiwan is growing and the fight against (it) stands for freedom against slavery, democracy against authoritarianism and civilised against barbaric,\" he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Taiwan has spent decades living alongside China's threats, but the sabre rattling has become more pronounced under President Xi Jinping.\n<\/p>\n
\n China's most authoritarian leader in a generation, Xi is on the cusp of securing an unprecedented third term later this year and has made gaining Taiwan a key part of his \"national rejuvenation\" goals.\n<\/p>\n
\n Taiwan remains massively outgunned, with 88,000 ground forces compared to China's one million troops, according to Pentagon estimates.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mandatory military service for Taiwanese men is currently just four months.\n<\/p>\n
\n American and Taiwanese strategists have increasingly pushed Taipei to adopt a \"porcupine\" strategy of asymmetric warfare, which would include training civilians to fight.\n<\/p>\n
\n Russia's stalled invasion of Ukraine has also focused attention in Taiwan on both the threats posed by a giant authoritarian neighbour and how huge armies can be resisted by a much smaller but determined defender.\n<\/p>\n
\n Like many of Taiwan's leading business figures, Tsao had huge investments in China and spent years speaking cautiously about Beijing.\n<\/p>\n
\n But he became more vocal in recent years as he stopped being involved in UMC and especially after China embarked on a sweeping political crackdown in nearby Hong Kong.\n<\/p>\n
\n At Thursday's press conference he said Taiwan should not be turned \"into another Hong Kong\".\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The essence of the Chinese communists are hooligans. They learnt violence and lying from the Soviet Union... The People's Republic of China is a gangster organisation disguised as a government and country.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Tsao previously gave up Taiwanese citizenship for a Singaporean passport.\n<\/p>\n
\n But last month he told Radio Free Asia he planned to take up Taiwanese citizenship again because he wants to die in his homeland.\n<\/p>\n
\n aw\/jta\/cwl\/axn\n<\/p>\n
\n UMC - UNITED MICROELECTRONICS CORPORATION<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A colourful Taiwanese tycoon unveiled plans Thursday to train more than three million \"civilian warriors\" to help defend the democratic island in the event of a Chinese invasion, donating TW$1 billion ($33 million) of his own money. Robert Tsao, 75, is one of Taiwan's most successful businessmen and founded major microchip maker United Microelectronics Corp […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-105780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n