TAIPEI, Taiwan—The self-ruled island is a “sea fortress” blocking Beijing’s expansion into the Pacific, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said on Sept. 15. Wu made the remarks during a keynote speech at an online symposium organized by the Washington-based nonprofit Global Taiwan Institute (GTI). The event, which focused on Taiwan-U.S. relations, was attended by U.S. Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.) and David Stilwell, former assistant secretary at the State Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. “A democratic Taiwan plays a significant role in ensuring freedom of navigation in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea,” Wu said, commenting on Taiwan’s strategic location within the first island chain. The first island chain is the string of islands closest to the Chinese mainland, stretching from the southern Japanese island of Kyushu through Taiwan, the Philippines, to Indonesia. For decades, military strategists for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have seen the …