Taiwan sits in the so-called first Island gym it includes a list of US friendly territories that are crucial to its foreign policy but but it also sits roughly 100 miles from the coast of China a country that has time and again threatened the island with its words and its military China sees Taiwan as its own and hence does not respect its Sovereign right or its airspace but there is a lesson it can learn from a country not far away U.S defense secretary Lloyd Austin says Ukraine is proof that a smaller military can successfully defend against a larger one point in case here being Taiwan and China now experts say this is a sign that the kind of international backing Ukraine has enjoyed could be extended to Taiwan.