china vs taiwan

China’s Military Continues to Threaten Taiwan

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Flashpoint – the South China Sea. The Chinese military continues to make aggressive moves towards Taiwan. This increased Chinese military activity is elevating security concerns over Taiwan’s sovereignty, even in the US.

Most recently, a swarm of Chinese fighter jets sliced through Taiwan’s southwest airspace last week. It was the latest in a string of perceived threats by Beijing in recent months.

The latest incursion comes as Taiwan and the United States appear to draw closer diplomatically – much to Beijing’s ire – and Taipei calls for even more international support amid deepening concerns it could at any moment become the “next Hong Kong.”

In June, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) imposed a sweeping security law in the name of quashing dissent in Hong Kong – prompting activists and opposition politicians to flee or face arrest, in a fast-moving erosion of freedoms that the financial enclave was supposed to uphold until at least 2047.

Hong Kong and Taiwan are widely viewed by Chinese nationalists as the two remaining strongholds of opposition to President Xi Jinping’s rule. As it stands, China does not allow neighboring Taiwan to obtain recognition on the international stage.

Speaking recently to Fox News, Michael Cole, Taipei-based senior fellow with the Global Taiwan Institute in Washington, D.C. said, “Beijing cannot win the hearts and minds of the Taiwanese, the CCP has therefore chosen a punitive strategy – increased military coercion, efforts to isolate Taiwan internationally, and various attempts to undermine the effectiveness of Taiwan’s democratic institutions, support for those institutions, and to erode state cohesion.”

Last month, Taiwan’s foreign minister, Joseph Wu, cautioned in a meeting with visiting U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar that fears of its freedoms being crushed by China, and its increased military posturing, were an ever-evolving cause for concern.

Yet many observers worry that the drills and campaign of intimidation are more than mere messaging – raising the risk of conflict, while at the same time investigating the autonomous island’s readiness and defense capabilities. As Chinese military actions grew in May, Taiwan responded by sending in marines the following month.

This was an attempt to bolster the barracks that were previously only secured by the Coast Guard. Over the course of recent months, China has deployed both its air force and navy to conduct exercises on an almost daily basis near Taiwan’s periphery, including a multitude of intentional forays into Taiwan’s airspace.

Armed conflict between the “two Chinas” is not out of the realm of possibility. As Dan Blumenthal, author of the forthcoming book, “The China Nightmare: The Grand Ambitions of a Decaying State,” points out, Taiwan and Hong Kong are essentially different – Taiwan being a de facto independent democratic country rather than a “special autonomous zone” – which means that the Chinese would “have to use military force to bring Taiwan to heel.”

 

 Should the US provide military aid to Taiwan to bolster against increased Chinese aggression? Please reply using the comments below.

china China-Taiwan conflict China-Taiwan relations China-Taiwan war Taiwan

3 thoughts on “China’s Military Continues to Threaten Taiwan

  1. CHINA HAS SHOWN STRONG DETERMINATION TO TAKE BACK TAIWAN WHICH IS ITS OWN TERRITORY.. NOTHING WRONG …

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