Taiwan is confident that the United States will remain a formidable power in Asia and can deter China from attempting an invasion of the island, Taiwan’s defense minister said, while recognizing the urgency of strengthening the island’s own defenses.

台湾国防部长表示，台湾对美国维持在亚洲的强大军事存在、威慑中国侵犯台湾企图的能力抱有信心，但同时也认识到加强自身防御的紧迫性。

Some of President Trump’s words and actions on Taiwan — raising tariffs, demanding that it drastically raise military spending, and accusing Taiwan of stealing the U.S. lead in making semiconductors — have magnified doubts in Taiwan about whether the United States would step in if China attacked the island. Beijing claims the island democracy is its territory and has said unification is inevitable, by force if necessary.

特朗普总统在台湾问题上的一些言行——提高关税、要求台湾大幅增加军费开支，以及指责台湾窃取美国在半导体制造领域的领先地位——已加剧了岛内对美国军事协防的疑虑。中国政府声称民主自治的台湾是其领土，并说统一是大势所趋，必要时将动用武力。

But China can be held in check by the United States’ forces and alliances across Asia, and by reminding Beijing of the terrible economic cost that a war would exact, Wellington Koo, Taiwan’s defense minister, said in his most extensive interview since taking the job a year ago.

但美国在亚洲的军事力量和联盟能遏制中国，并让其认识到战争将带来惨重的经济代价，台湾国防部长顾立雄在上任一年来接受的一次最全面的采访中说。

“If China can be made to understand that the potential costs would be extremely, extremely high, then that will make it extremely hard for it to make a decision” for war, Mr. Koo said in the 80-minute interview on Wednesday with news outlets including The New York Times.

 “让中国理解它犯台要付出的代价非常非常高，那么就会让它的要攻台的想法变得非常非常难以決定，”顾立雄在周三接受包括《纽约时报》在内的多家新闻媒体长达80分钟的采访时说。

“That’s what the United States also thinks — that preserving the security of the Indo-Pacific, especially the stability of the Taiwan Strait, by using deterrence to avoid war, is in our shared interest,” Mr. Koo said, referring to the region where Taiwan is. He later added: “Of course, the Trump administration emphasizes ‘America first.’ But we believe that on security issues, it also emphasizes Indo-Pacific first.”

 “美国也是这样的想法，也就是维持印太的安全，特別是台海的和平与稳定，以吓阻的手段来避免战争的发生，这是我们共同的利益，”顾立雄在谈到台湾所在的地区时说。他还表示：“特朗普政府当然强调美国优先，但是我们是认为在安全的议题上面，他同時也强调印太优先。”

2023年，台湾在港口城市八里举行的年度军演中的反登陆演习。台湾已经提高了国防开支。

Taiwan would be deeply vulnerable without U.S. arms sales and security backing. When Washington switched diplomatic relations from Taiwan to Beijing in 1979, American lawmakers pushed through legislation that says the United States should provide defensive arms to Taiwan and should have the forces to intervene if Taiwan is attacked. (The law does not say the United States must intervene.)

如果没有美国的武器销售和安全支持，台湾将极易受到攻击。美国1979年把外交关系从台湾转到北京后，美国国会曾通过了一项立法，要求美国向台湾提供防御性武器，并在台湾受攻击时有进行干预的军事力量。 （该法律并没有规定美国必须干预。）

Mr. Koo, 66, a former national security adviser whose Chinese name is Koo Li-Hsiung, is overseeing the Taiwanese government’s efforts to upgrade its relatively small military into a force strong and nimble enough to fend off threats from China, partly by deploying more drones, unmanned sea vessels and highly mobile missiles.

顾立雄现年66岁，曾任国家安全会议秘书长。他正在负责台湾政府将规模有限的武装力量升级为足够强大、灵活以抵御中国威胁的努力，措施包括部署更多的无人机、无人驾驶海上船只，以及高机动性导弹。

Many officials and experts in Taiwan and abroad say that the island needs to move faster to counter Beijing’s relentless military expansion.

岛内外的众多官员和专家表示，台湾需要加快行动步伐，以应对中国政府持续扩张的军力。

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has ordered the People’s Liberation Army to be strong enough to take Taiwan by 2027, senior U.S. officials have said. Observers say Mr. Xi does not have a timetable for invasion and would prefer to absorb Taiwan without a war. Asked how he assessed the threat, Mr. Koo said the dangers were rising, but had not reached the level that meant invasion could be imminent.

美国高级官员透露，中国领导人习近平已下令中国人民解放军在2027年前具备武力夺取台湾的实力。但观察人士指出，习近平并未制定入侵时间表，他更想在不发动战争的情况下将台湾统一。顾立雄被问及如何评估威胁时说，危险正在上升，但尚未达到即将发生入侵的程度。

“We believe that it falls between medium intensity and high intensity at this point,“ Mr. Koo said, citing the Taiwanese military’s threat-level index, “but the indicators aren’t sufficient yet to conclude that there is an intent to attack Taiwan.”

“我们认为，（目前的威胁程度）介于中强度跟高强度中间的部分，”顾立雄引用台湾军方的威胁指数说，“但是它症候上面还不足以能够显示它是有这种攻台的举动。”

“让中国理解它犯台要付出的代价非常非常高，那么就会让它的要攻台的想法变得非常非常难以決定，”顾立雄说。

Partly prodded by demands from Mr. Trump, Taiwan has promised to increase military spending to more than 3 percent of GDP, after initially setting it at 2.45 percent of economic worth earlier this year. Some experts say Taiwan’s military is becoming more effective.

部分受特朗普的施压推动，台湾已承诺将军费开支增至GDP的3%以上，台湾在今年早些时候曾把军费开支初步定为GDP的2.45%。一些专家说，台湾军队的作战效能正在提升。

“The trajectory is in the right direction. It’s now a question of being able to move fast enough,” Ely Ratner, a former U.S. assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs under President Biden, said of Taiwan’s military changes during a recent visit to the island.

“轨迹正朝着正确的方向发展。现在的问题是如何行动得足够快，”伊莱·拉特纳在最近访台期间谈到台湾的军事改革时说，他曾在拜登政府担任负责印太安全事务的国防部助理部长。

Taiwan legislators are set to debate the bigger increase in military spending in the next session of the legislature, which is dominated by lawmakers from the opposition. They are generally are less confrontational toward China, and skeptical of some of the government’s military projects, such as a Taiwanese-built submarine.

台湾的立法者们将在下届立法院会议上就进一步增加军费开支展开辩论，来自反对党的立法者目前在立法院占多数。他们通常对中国采取减少对抗的态度，并对政府的一些军事项目持怀疑态度，例如台湾制造的潜艇。

Even with the extra funds, Taiwan faces bottlenecks in buying the right weapons and keeping enough troops with the skills to operate them. Taiwan has paid billions of dollars for U.S. weapons that have not been delivered, sometimes for years, because of a backlog. This month, Taiwan staged its first live-fire test of the high mobility artillery rocket system, or HIMARS, bought from the United States. Taiwan placed its first orders for them in 2020.

即使有更多的军费，台湾仍在采购合适的武器、维持足够具备操作技能的士兵方面面临瓶颈。由于订单积压，台湾花费数十亿美元采购的武器迟迟不能交付，部分甚至拖延数年时间。本月，台湾首次实弹测试了从美国购买的“海马斯”火箭炮系统。台湾采购该系统的首批订单是在2020年。

“Part of the challenge now is the United States’ defense industrial base, whether it can cope with the multiple demands being made on it,” Mr. Ratner said in an interview. “Whereas a few years ago the United States was pushing hard for Taiwan to do more, now they are fully committed, and the United States needs to be able to match that in support.”

“现在的部分挑战是美国的国防工业基础，它能否满足多重需求，”拉特纳在接受采访时说。“然而几年前，美国还在极力推动台湾做更多的努力，现在，他们已经全力投入了，美国的相应支持也需要跟进。”

本月，台湾在屏东首次实弹测试了从美国购买的“海马斯”火箭炮系统。

Last year, Mr. Koo put an end to bayonet training and goose-step marching for Taiwanese soldiers and promised that Taiwan’s annual military exercises would be made more realistic.

去年，顾立雄取消了台湾士兵的刺枪训练和正步操，并承诺让年度军演向实战化转型。

“The national military is at a crucial time of both challenges and transformation, responding to the trends in Taiwan’s security and changes in the way of modern warfare,” Mr. Koo said, referring to Taiwan’s forces. “Practical training is the foundation for forming combat capabilities.”

 “因应台海安全局势、现代战争形态的变化，国军正处于转型与挑战并存的关键时刻，那务实训练是战力形成的基础，”顾立雄在谈到台湾军队时说。

Mr. Koo has critics who say that Taiwan’s efforts to upgrade military preparations are too superficial and lag China’s. Many U.S. officials and experts have urged Taiwan to shift more decisively to newer weapons, such as drones, which are less expensive and more mobile, possibly offering a way to stymie China’s bigger forces.

顾立雄的批评者指出，他们认为台湾提升军事准备的努力流于表面，落在中国后面。许多美国官员和专家已敦促台湾更果断地转向更新型武器，例如无人机，这些武器成本更低、机动性更强，或可为阻挠中国大陆更强大的军力提供一种方法。

“You have to enhance your skills, professionalism, and your mind-set. Also, equally important, those drones, unmanned boats and so on, they require effective, efficient, precision communication,” said Andrew Nien-Dzu Yang, who served as a senior defense ministry official over a decade ago when the opposition Nationalist Party was in power. “They have this kind of concept, but the problem is how to implement it. How can it be realized?”

“必须加强自身的技能、专业素养，以及思维方式。同样重要的是，那些无人机、无人艇等等，它们需要有效、高效、精准的通信支持，”杨念祖说道，他曾在反对党国民党于十多年前执政时期担任国防部高级官员。“他们已经有了相关理念，但问题是如何落实。怎样才能实现？”

Mr. Koo, who started his career as a lawyer, made the case that Taiwan was on the way to mastering “asymmetric” warfare strengths that could ward off China. His ministry has established an innovation agency focused on drones and anti-drone warfare, artificial intelligence applications and improved communications and cybersecurity, he said.

顾立雄的职业生涯始于律师，他提出了支持台湾正在逐步掌握足以抵御中国的“不对称”作战优势的论据。他说，台湾国防部已成立了一个创新机构，重点攻关无人机和反无人机作战、人工智能应用，以及改进通信和网络安全。

President Lai Ching-te has said that a big proportion of Taiwan’s increased military spending would go to buying American weapons — a promise that may please Mr. Trump, who wants Taiwan to ease its trade surplus with the United States.

赖清德总统表示，台湾军费开支增加的很大一部分将用于购买美国武器，这个承诺可能会让特朗普高兴，因为他希望台湾减少对美国的贸易顺差。

“Of course, we also hope that the United States can speed up delivery,” Mr. Koo said.

“当然也是期待美国交运的速度能夠加快，”顾立雄说。