Tension increases for Taipei’s independence after Beijing’s “provocative and destabilizing” military activity near the island
Taiwan can become the new Ukraine. China’s latest statements fan the flame of a growing tension in East Asia that is about to explode. Could it end in war? It is certainly a possibility for Beijing. Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe assured this Sunday that “we will fight at all costs and to the end,” and even stressed that his country “will not hesitate to start a war” to prevent Taiwan’s independence.
Meanwhile, the United States denounced a “provocative and destabilizing” military activity by China near Taipei. “We see increasing coercion from Beijing. Planes flying near the island in record numbers in recent months and at almost a daily rate,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned at the Shangri-la Dialogue, a security forum in Singapore.
These performances are just one more drop in a very full glass. In recent months, already high tensions have risen between Washington and Beijing over Taiwan, an island with a democratic government and separated from China since 1949, when the nationalists defeated by Mao Zedong’s communists evacuated to Taipei. The Asian giant considers this territory of 24 million inhabitants as its province and insists on its objective of recovering it sooner or later, by force if necessary. Its reunification, assured the defense minister, “will be a reality.”
He also warned that any “foreign interference” to help Taiwan achieve its independence “is doomed to failure. Asking for foreign support won’t work, and they should never think about it!” she bellowed. “No one should ever underestimate the resolve and ability of the Chinese military to safeguard its territorial integrity,” Fenghe stated.
Washington support
Taiwan, for its part, called Beijing’s claims “absurd.” “We will not give in to the threats of force used by the Chinese government,” he said in a statement. And support is not lacking. Among them, one of the greatest powers in the world. Since his arrival at the White House, US President Joe Biden has been forceful in supporting him in Taipei. Indeed, last month, Washington broke decades of ambiguity by asserting that it would militarily defend the island if China attacked it.
One of the leaders who has been suffering the ferocity of the war for more than three months, Volodímir Zelenski, decided to intervene in the face of growing Asian tension. “If there is a diplomatic and preventive path in Taiwan, it must be used” and he remarked that “nobody benefits from wars”. Even Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida warned that “East Asia may become Ukraine.”
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