Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin joins ‘Varney & Co.’ to report on the tensions between China and Taiwan.
TAIPEI, TAIWAN — As China steps up its power projection in the Pacific, Taiwan’s Ocean Affairs Minister Kuan Bi-ling is sending a clear message: The world must act now to confront China’s growing maritime belligerence.
Speaking exclusively to Fox News Digital at the 2025 Taiwan International Ocean Forum in Taipei, Kuan warned that China’s actions in the Taiwan Strait—harassing ships, threatening undersea cables, and rehearsing blockades—are not just regional provocations, but a global threat to the free flow of an estimated nearly US$3 trillion in annual maritime trade.
“This is not a domestic matter,” she said. “It’s a global security issue. The more we prepare for conflict, the less likely it becomes.”
TAIWAN PROMISES TO BUY MORE AMERICAN GOODS, UNDER THREAT OF 32% TRUMP TARIFF
J-20 stealth fighter jets rehearse for the upcoming 2023 Changchun Air Show on July 24, 2023, in Changchun, Jilin Province of China. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Kuan, whose agency oversees Taiwan’s Coast Guard, admitted the imbalance in size between Taiwan and China’s fleets. “We monitor every Chinese drill. We analyze. We adapt. We respond.”
Her comments came amid growing concern that Beijing may attempt a “quasi-blockade” of Taiwan. This would be an aggressive, ambiguous move short of war, but devastating to global shipping and commerce.
Independently ruled Taiwan has not been governed for a single day by the communist People’s Republic of China (PRC), which was founded in October 1949. Beijing, however, spends many hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars each year pushing its distorted version of history in which Taiwan is a province of China that must be recovered by force if necessary.
Beijing says it is actively preparing for war unless Taiwan kowtows and accepts becoming some type of “special administrative region” of China, similar to the situation in Hong Kong – a place where today virtually zero dissent or protest is tolerated; even wearing a T-shirt that reads “Free Hong Kong” can result in prison time.
Kuan is urging democratic allies to take the threat seriously. She emphasized that Taiwan does not escalate, but always acts when China intrudes.
TAIWAN’S PRESIDENT TARGETS CHINA INFLUENCE, KICKS OUT PRO-BEIJING AGITATORS AMID RISING TENSIONS
A Taiwanese Navy ship sails in the harbor in Keelung on December 11, 2024. Taiwan said on December 11 that it had detected 53 Chinese military aircraft and 19 ships near the island in the past 24 hours, as Beijing holds its biggest maritime mobilizat (Photo by I-HWA CHENG/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
“When Chinese ships illegally enter our waters, we respond with law enforcement, not provocation,” Kuan said. “We seize their cargo, deport their crew, and we document everything—publicly and in multiple languages—to show the world we follow international law.”
She noted a recent incident where Chinese coast guard personnel illegally boarded a Taiwanese ferry but quickly withdrew after Taiwan’s Coast Guard arrived. “It wasn’t goodwill,” she said. “It was about optics. China wants to maintain the illusion of ‘We are all one Chinese family’ unity. We’re exposing the lie.”
“China’s true aim is to normalize its aggression by framing it as internal affairs,” Kuan said. “Our job is to fight that with transparency and international media.”
Taiwan’s Ocean Affairs Minister Kuan Bi-ling gives her opening remarks at the conference in July.
“China is seeking to remake the planet in its own image,” said Piero Tozzi, staff director of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China told Fox News Digital. “It’s a systemic rival, not just a strategic one.”
Tozzi says Taiwan should increase LNG imports from the U.S., which would give the U.S. Navy greater justification to ensure safe passage, “even under blockade conditions.”
Britain’s former Defense Secretary Sir Gavin Williamson also weighed in, applauding recent British, French and Dutch naval transits through the Taiwan Strait—but said it’s not enough.
“We can’t let the U.S. carry this burden alone,” he told Fox News Digital. “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine woke Europe up. Now we must wake up to China’s ambitions in the Pacific.”
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE
Even symbolic gestures, Williamson said, matter. Referring to Taiwan’s unofficial representative offices around the world that usually use the name “Taipei”, he said, “Allowing Taiwan’s offices to use the name ‘Taiwan,’ for example, has weight.”
Tozzi put it bluntly during a panel at the forum: “There will be a rules-based order. The only question is: Who gets to write the rules?”