Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago, Taiwan has donated over US$100 million in aid to Kyiv. Taipei has also been learning from Ukraine's experience as it prepares for its own potential conflict with China.
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00:00In Taipei, people pay their respects to a dead Taiwanese soldier, one killed thousands
00:09of kilometers away, fighting against Russian forces in Ukraine.
00:14People here told us Wu Zhongda went to Ukraine twice and was killed by Russian shelling.
00:19A fellow volunteer says Wu was determined to stay in the fight.
00:34Around 40 people showed up to this church to mourn his death.
00:37Wu is the second Taiwanese soldier known to have died fighting in Ukraine.
00:43Ukraine's resistance to Russia has resonated with many in Taiwan, which faces its own existential
00:47threat from China, which has vowed to take Taiwan by force if necessary.
00:53When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for foreign volunteers to join the
00:56fight, some people from Taiwan stepped up.
01:04Taiwan has helped in other ways, too.
01:07One think tank says the country has sent at least 800 tons of humanitarian and medical
01:11aid to Ukraine, and at least 126 million U.S. dollars in donations to help with power,
01:18health care, and social services.
01:20While most of this aid comes from government funds, civil society groups and regular people
01:25in Taiwan have also raised money to help.
01:28One local movement says they have raised at least tens of thousands of U.S. dollars for
01:31supplies for Ukraine's war effort.
01:34So for military purposes, of course, most often those are drones, small drones that
01:41have proven to be extremely useful at the battlefield.
01:45And then for humanitarian purposes, you know, there's a lot of kind of needs that we're
01:51covering.
01:53Volunteers from both Taiwan and Ukraine have their own reasons for raising funds.
01:57One of the major motivations is, of course, Taiwanese people relating to Ukraine and
02:04sort of projecting some of those uncertainties, perhaps, and some of that grief that Ukrainians
02:12have been experiencing from before the war and after onto themselves.
02:18Some of Taiwan's leaders have also pointed out the parallels between Taiwan and Ukraine.
02:23Everything we're doing now is to prevent the pain and suffering of the tragedy of Ukraine
02:29from being repeated in our scenario in Taiwan.
02:33In December 2022, former Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen extended mandatory military service
02:37for men from four months to a year.
02:40And seeing Ukraine's successful use of drones and portable anti-tank weapons on the battlefield,
02:45Taiwan's defense ministry has moved up its own domestic production.
02:49So as it prepares for a potential conflict with China, Taiwan is both helping and learning
02:53from Ukraine.
02:55Ryan Wu and Keynes Coranta for Taiwan Plus.