Saturday, April 21, 2018

Are The US And China Headed For War Over Taiwan?

Chinese President Xi. Xinhua

Wang Xiangwei, SCMP: Are the US and China headed for war over Taiwan?

As Beijing and Washington position themselves for a trade war, Trump should beware playing the Taiwan card – or he may find his actions lead to a real war.

Are the Chinese mainland and Taiwan headed down an inevitable path to war – one that is likely to see the United States join the fray?

This slow-burning question came to the fore again last week when the mainland launched live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday amid fiery rhetoric from Chinese state media. On Thursday morning, Chinese state media started to post online videos of helicopters and warships firing at targets at sea but Taiwan dismissed the exercises as “routine”.

This came after President Xi Jinping had presided over a massive naval parade off Hainan island a week earlier, one that involved 48 warships including China’s sole operating aircraft carrier and more than 10,000 servicemen – the largest such exercise since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949.

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WNU Editor: The Chinese are in for the long game. Starting a war over Taiwan is not on the top of their list right now.

3 comments:

Mike Feldhake said...

WNU editor; totally agree. China is also not in a position to win such an angagement anyway.

Bert Bert said...

China is getting stronger every year. They benefit by delaying and building up.

jac said...

If there are more and more "high level political exchange' and weapon sale between US and Taiwan, China will take the risk of loosing face which is unthinkable in Chinese culture. I will be cautious with the future.