Is a new crisis between China and Taiwan looming?
How do these growing tensions relate to the deepening differences between Washington and Beijing?
And has President Trump contributed by undermining the long-standing “One China” policy pursued by his predecessors that was the foundation of the rapprochement between China and the US in the late 1970s?
The incursion by Chinese warplanes on Sunday, crossing a maritime line separating Chinese and Taiwanese waters, is the most serious such incident for years. The duration of the incursion – some ten minutes – suggests it was no mere navigational mistake.
Taiwan scrambled aircraft to intercept the intruders. Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen has called for Chinese warplanes that cross the maritime line to be “forcefully expelled”.
Taiwan – of course – is seen by Beijing as an inseparable part of China; its separation from the motherland merely a temporary phenomenon.
China’s President Xi Jinping warned at the start of this year that unification remained China’s ultimate goal irrespective of the differences between their two political systems. He made it clear that China would not “abandon the use of force” and that it retained the option “of taking all necessary measures.”
