For decades China-watchers have debated what form a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) offensive against Taiwan might take. An onslaught seems to be coming. Saying no to a cross-strait union is not an option Chinese Communist Party (CCP) supremo Xi Jinping means to grant the islanders. Beijing wrote its threat to use force into law back in 2005. Xi regularly reminds everyone that the party’s patience is finite. It seems the only question is timing.
Nor, however, is Xi likely to cow Taipei officialdom or ordinary folk into submission.
Taiwanese are not obtuse. They saw what happened in Hong Kong last summer, when Beijing enacted a national security law summarily revoking the city’s status as a liberal democratic enclave in a totalitarian state. They know a similar fate awaits them should they capitulate to blandishments from Xi & Co.
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Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- December 15, 2020
A Berlin Strategy: How Should America Respond to China’s Taiwan Threats -- James Holmes, National Interest
China's Nationalists See a World Turning Their Way -- Chris Buckley, New York Times
Xi Jinping’s tightrope walk over the abyss -- David P. Goldman, Asia Times
Sleepwalking Toward the Nuclear Precipice -- Ernest J. Moniz and Sam Nunn, Foreign Affairs
After Arab Spring, a decade of upheaval and lost hopes -- Lee Keath, AP
Pakistan: Is Imran Khan on the way out? -- Haroon Janjua, DW
SPECIAL REPORT-Venezuela wields a powerful "hate" law to silence Maduro's remaining foes -- Angus Berwick and Sarah Kinosian, Reuters
Don't expect any 'media culpas' over ignoring Hunter Biden before the election -- Bernard Godlberg, The Hill
Big tech breakup? EU mulls strict rules for Amazon, Google, Apple -- Natalia Drozdiak, Al Jazeera/Bloomberg
Where does the Republican Party go after Trump? -- Pratiksha Ghildial, BBC New
Snowden, Assange: Who Else Might US President Donald Trump Pardon in His Final Days in Office? -- Chris Summer, Sputnik
World needs better surveillance for emerging pathogens -- Jonathan Gornall, Asia Times
Germany Is Faring Poorly in the Second Wave of the Coronavirus -- Spiegel Online
On the COVID-19 vaccine, Trump was right and the fact-checkers were wrong -- Becket Adams, Washington Examiner
1 comment:
If Xi attempts to take Taiwan he must do it in less than 2 weeks from the opening shots.
He will have to hope that a reunion by force would cow the US, Australia, and Southeast Asia a not the opposite.
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