The Growing Risk of a China-Taiwan Conflict
The Growing Risk of a China-Taiwan Conflict
By Todd Strandberg
In the past few years there has been a growing danger that China will use force to capture Taiwan. Beijing has taken a series of step that makes military action all the more likely at some point.
In 1949, the Chinese Civil War came to a dramatic close. Chinese Communist forces under the direction of Mao Zedong completed their conquest of the mainland, and the Republic of China forces under Chiang Kai-shek evacuated to the island of Formosa—also known as Taiwan—off the coast of China. There, the Republic of China’s government licked its wounds while maintaining it was still the legitimate Chinese government. The Chinese Communist Party, on the other hand, established the People’s Republic of China, occupied the mainland, and established its capital in the imperial city of Beijing.
Communist China sees Taiwan as a “rogue province,” declaring it a top foreign policy objective (or domestic policy, depending on how you look at it) to bring the island under Beijing’s control. For decades, China did little about Taiwan; Unable to conduct a cross-strait invasion, there was nothing it could do, so the Communist Party bided its time and grew the economy instead.
China has made several intrusions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zones.
Britain’s defense minister warned that Chinese incursions into the Taiwanese air defense zone were dangerous and could spark conflict.
Western capitals and Taipei are on alert after the Chinese air force intensified its overflights on Oct. 1.
“Militarily, they are posturing, as we’ve seen. We think that’s unwise,” British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told reporters.
“You’re in danger of destabilizing the region; you’re in danger of provoking further conflict in other disputed areas,” he said during a visit to Brussels for a NATO meeting, which is not expected to discuss China or Taiwan.
Joe Biden’s Taiwan Policy has been a total disaster. The Chinese press openly mocks Biden in regards to the Taiwan issue.
“He is just too old and likes to bluff, doesn’t know what he is talking about,” tweeted China Daily’s Chen Weihua, referring to President Joe Biden.
The dismissive comment confirms that America’s deterrence of China is eroding fast. Biden told CNN’s Anderson Cooper he would defend Taiwan. This statement did more damage than good because it shows that Biden doesn’t understand America’s policy of not mentioning who we would defend.
Biden’s definitive statement was a stark departure from America’s decades-old policy of “strategic ambiguity,” the policy of telling neither Beijing nor Taipei what the U.S. would do in the case of imminent conflict.
The walk-back statements could lead Beijing to believe there are disagreements inside the Biden administration, and in a crisis, some officials would try to override the President to block an American defense of Taiwan.
The United States has major interests in Taiwan. Taiwan is also a major economic force, manufacturing over 60 percent of semiconductors worldwide. Beyond that, it has major strategic value to the U.S.: For the Chinese air and naval forces to venture into the western Pacific today, they must pass Russian, Japanese, Philippine, and Taiwanese territory. If the People’s Republic of China gained Taiwan, it would have an unobstructed springboard into the Pacific Ocean.
I don’t think China will invade Taiwan because all the energy of Asia will need to be the focus of the massive invasion of the Middle East. Demonic force will work to build the 200 million army, and since it’s “the kings of the East” the Chinese forces may join unlikely nations like Japan, North and South Korea, and Taiwan.
“And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared” (Revelation 16:12).
– Todd