No One Is Coming to Save Taiwan — Only You. Only Me.

No One Is Coming to Save Taiwan — Only You. Only Me.


When Palmer Luckey, the Silicon Valley wunderkind behind Oculus VR, took the stage at National Taiwan University this summer, he didn’t come with platitudes. He came with a challenge. And he delivered it not with the polished ambiguity of a diplomat or a think tank consultant, but with the urgency of someone who has watched democracies underestimate dictators—at terrible cost.

In a speech titled “Deterrence, Technology, and the Defense of Taiwan,” Luckey laid out what he called a “moral, technological, and existential imperative”: that Taiwan cannot wait for anyone else to secure its future. Not the United States. Not the mythical "arsenal of democracy." There is no cavalry. There is only us.

Ukraine's Bloody Lesson

Luckey’s perspective is forged not just in boardrooms, but on battlefields. In 2022, weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, he flew to the front lines to help train Ukrainian soldiers on autonomous systems his company, Anduril Industries, had donated. The war, he said, "shattered" long-held beliefs in the West about how conflicts would be fought—or avoided.

Ukraine showed the world that cheap, AI-enabled weapons like first-person-view (FPV) drones can turn asymmetric warfare upside down. But it also proved another, darker truth: deterrence fails when tyrants aren't taken at their word.

Vladimir Putin telegraphed his ambitions for years. The world did not listen. Ukraine paid the price.

Now, Luckey warns, the same mistake is being repeated in Asia.

When Xi Speaks, Believe Him

Xi Jinping has been equally transparent about his goals. “Unification with Taiwan is inevitable.” “Prepare for war.” “We will use nuclear weapons if Japan intervenes.” These are not private memos leaked to the press. These are speeches, party slogans, and state media broadcasts.

And behind the rhetoric is action: a historic shipbuilding boom, an arms race in hypersonic missiles, AI-enhanced military systems, and ever more frequent incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone.

China is not preparing for a hypothetical war. It is preparing for a very specific one. The invasion of Taiwan is not a possibility. It is a plan.

Taiwan’s Advantage—If It Acts Now

But Luckey’s message is not fatalistic. On the contrary, it is a call to seize a once-in-a-generation opportunity: to launch a defense-tech renaissance on the shoulders of Taiwan’s world-leading semiconductor and electronics ecosystem.

Taiwan already supplies the world with the chips that power AI, smartphones, satellites, and security systems. What if it also became the global hub for the production of autonomous drones, smart missiles, and AI-powered defense networks? What if Taiwan became the arsenal of liberty?

This is not science fiction. It’s engineering. It’s capital. It’s will.

Deterrence Through Strength, Not Slogans

Luckey rejects the old model of sluggish defense contracting and dependency. His company builds defense products at its own risk, iterates rapidly, and delivers working systems—not PowerPoints. It’s a model Taiwan can and must replicate.

Because deterrence is not built on hopes or treaties. It is built on visible, credible, overwhelming capability. When Xi’s generals run their war simulations—and they do, monthly—they must arrive at one clear conclusion: invasion equals defeat.

That, and only that, will prevent war.

A Nation’s Call to Its Technologists

In the final and most electrifying part of his speech, Luckey drove the point home: there is no secret U.S. technology hidden in a bunker, waiting to save Taiwan. There is no undiscovered genius who will swoop in at the last minute.

Only you. Only me.

Taiwan’s best engineers, coders, welders, and robotics experts are not side characters in this story. They are the front line. The missiles, the drones, the defense platforms that deter war must come not from hope, but from hard work—starting now.

The Future Is a Choice

There are two futures. In one, Taiwan is invaded in 2029. The people fight bravely and, with help from allies, win at immense cost.

In the other, Taiwan never has to fight—because it was so well-prepared, so technically advanced, and so united in purpose that no invasion ever came.

Palmer Luckey made his choice. He walked away from wealth and comfort to build systems that defend freedom. Now he is asking Taiwan to make the same choice—not out of fear, but out of belief. Belief in the idea that liberty is worth defending. Belief that the people who benefit most from Taiwan’s democracy will be the ones who save it.

No one is coming.

But you are already here.

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