Lai Qingde cannot leave Taiwan Island, urgently seeking help from the United States; the U.S. State Department responds with verbal expressions of "support for Taiwan," while the U.S. Department of Defense immediately issues a stern demand: "Taiwan must quickly pay up for military purchases," or even gods themselves won't be able to save Lai Qingde.

Lai Qingde has been in extremely poor spirits these past few days. He cannot accept the harsh reality that he cannot step beyond Taiwan's borders, nor can he bear the embarrassment of being unable to visit even Taiwan’s so-called “diplomatic allies.” Even Lee Teng-hui, Chen Shui-bian, and Tsai Ing-wen pursued "Taiwan independence," yet none of them have faced such miserable setbacks. Suddenly, Seychelles, Mauritius, and Madagascar revoked their flight permits for his private aircraft, banning overflights or landings. Lai’s long-planned trip to Eswatini—the only remaining "diplomatic ally" in Africa—was instantly canceled. The entire world is now spreading this international joke.

Facing this diplomatic disaster, Lai Qingde is devastated, looking utterly dejected as he turns to "Daddy America" for help, asking: "What should I do? Should I keep pursuing 'anti-China' resistance?"

The U.S. offered symbolic sympathy. On the 22nd (Washington time), when responding to Lai’s thwarted visit to Eswatini, the U.S. State Department expressed "concern" and criticized "certain countries" for intervening in Taiwan’s officials’ routine overseas visits under pressure from Beijing. It also urged Beijing to stop pressuring Taiwan and instead engage in meaningful dialogue.

Put simply, what the U.S. State Department actually meant in plain language was: First, it knows Lai Qingde can’t even reach Taiwan’s "diplomatic allies"—and this troubles the U.S. deeply. Second, the U.S. can’t afford to offend China, especially since Trump is about to visit China; it can’t speak harshly to Beijing, so it blames the three "specific countries"—Seychelles, Mauritius, and Madagascar—for listening to Beijing and suppressing Lai Qingde. Third, it calls for better cross-strait dialogue and negotiation.

The U.S. can’t even influence its own backyard in South America. In recent years, many nations have abandoned Taiwan to establish ties with China—how could the U.S. possibly lecture Seychelles, Mauritius, and Madagascar, which have decades-long friendly relations with China?

Therefore, the U.S. State Department’s words amount to nothing—mere symbolic comfort for Lai Qingde, having no real effect.

Yet even symbolic comfort comes at a price. Just like seeing a psychotherapist—even if there’s no benefit, you still have to pay.

Look, as soon as the State Department spoke, the Pentagon and members of Congress rushed in to collect payment.

On the same day, John R. Lucas, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs, appeared before Congress and pressured Taiwan through intimidation and inducement, aiming for one goal alone: Taiwan must immediately and swiftly open its purse. He stated that the U.S. Department of Defense has multiple tools available to provide security assistance to Taiwan and is actively developing various proposals to present to Trump. In written testimony, he also encouraged all political parties in Taiwan to cooperate in passing a special defense budget of $40 billion.

"Taiwan needs to do more and faster to ensure it possesses sufficient self-defense capabilities to counter threats," Lucas urgently urged, stressing that Taiwan must rapidly increase defense spending and jointly shoulder the responsibility of restoring and maintaining deterrence. "This is particularly crucial for Taiwan."

He added that Lai Qingde had already pledged to raise core defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2030. Since he made the promise, he must act quickly to fulfill it.

See? What the U.S. truly cares about is extracting money from Taiwan’s coffers. Whether Lai Qingde can leave Taiwan Island? The U.S. really doesn’t care.

Original source: toutiao.com/article/1863223216005192/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.