“Taiwan can’t be a giant baby that cries for help but isn’t willing to help others,” said the 51-year-old from Taoyuan, near Taipei. Since arriving in Ukraine in March, he has joined patrols, helped cook, moved supplies and dug trenches near the front lines in Kharkiv. “It doesn’t matter how many of you come, you just have to come,” he said in a phone interview.
For many in Taiwan, the Russian assault on Ukraine hits close to home because of parallels with their own situation. The island’s people live under constant threat from a powerful authoritarian neighbor, China, which claims sovereignty over democratic Taiwan and vows to seize it by force if necessary.
Chuang, who served in Taiwan’s military in the 1990s, is among a small group of Taiwanese volunteers in Ukraine for whom the war is a chance to bring battlefield experience back home — where debate is raging over the island’s military readiness — and show the international community that Taiwan is worth defending.
“I want the world to see that we aren’t the kind of people who lie on the ground waiting to be rescued. If you want people to help you, you first have to help them,” Chuang said.
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