The Taiwanese are no longer counting on the United States to help defend them in the event of an attack by China, the Economist wrote on June 11.

For decades, Taiwan’s calculation has been that if it can survive Chinese blockades, bombardments and amphibious landings for a month, then U.S. forces would have time to arrive and push the Chinese out. Its defense strategies were built around this basic assumption.

But after seeing U.S. President Donald Trump shy away from fulfilling America’s legal obligation to defend Ukraine’s borders, and his criticism of Ukraine as a small nation that naively tries to resist conquest by a larger neighbor, the Taiwanese fear that the same thinking applies to them. The fact that President Trump has also specifically scoffed at Taiwan’s ability to resist a Chinese invasion adds to their anxieties. As a result, the Taiwanese are now preparing for a lonelier war, and likely a much longer one.

“Taiwanese confidence that America will arrive at all is growing weaker by the day,” the Economist reported. “Ukraine’s long war is forcing Taiwan … to make unprecedented public efforts to prepare the island’s 23 million people for a crisis lasting far longer than a month, such as a naval blockade.”

These public efforts include stockpiling food, medicine and fuel. Authorities also stage regular drills to help train the population on how to get by during a prolonged siege or blackout. Warfare workshops are increasingly held for civilians.

The Taiwanese calculate that if they can endure for months and months, then the Chinese Communist Party’s legitimacy would be challenged and other nations would have time to summon the will to come and help. Perhaps this would include nations such as Japan, Australia and South Korea. Even after help arrives, the Taiwanese expect the war to last a long time. The Taiwanese “point to Ukraine’s starkest lesson: Survival is a long game,” the Economist noted.

The Taiwanese also see America’s Ukraine policy as a signal to China that now is a good time for powerful aggressors to take other nations’ land and people. It is true that Russia’s failure to quickly subdue Ukraine has given the Chinese pause. But Taiwan fears the lesson China has learned from this is that the aggressor in such a situation must strike fast and hard. Blitzkrieg is needed before the world has time to react.

It’s a sobering reality the Taiwanese are facing, having realized the U.S. is not a nation they can count on. This is an outcome that Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has long warned about.

In 1998, after Bill Clinton became the first U.S. president to yield to Chinese pressure and issue a statement critical of Taiwanese independence, Mr. Flurry said it meant Taiwan’s days of freedom were numbered. He wrote:

The Chinese leaders pressured the president and America to speak against our freedom-loving friends before the whole world. … The people of Taiwan fear for their future. They feel betrayed. …

Once again, America has showcased its broken will to the whole world. …

How could anyone fail to see that Taiwan is destined to become a part of mainland China? These [23 million] people are going to be forced into the Chinese mold; and it is going to happen for one reason: because of a pitifully weak-willed America.

Does freedom really mean so little to us?

Mr. Flurry’s understanding of America’s weak will, and how it will factor into the China-Taiwan dynamic, is based on Bible prophecy. Leviticus 26 records God warning the descendants of Israel—mainly modern America and Britain—that if they refused to turn to Him, then He would “break the pride of [their] power” (verse 19).

To understand more about how America’s broken will is going to result in Taiwan being swallowed up by the Chinese Communist Party, order your free copy of Russia and China in Prophecy.