China’s aircraft carrier is little more than a paper tiger, Euan Graham writes.

OPINION: Taiwan Has No Reason to Fear the Liaoning
The News Lens
Date: 2018/03/23
By:  Euan Graham, The Interpreter

Photo Credit:Baycrest@Flickr CC BY 2.5

Measured in terms of Chinese rhetoric, the temperature of cross-strait relations has risen sharply this week. Addressing China’s National People’s Congress, President Xi Jinping warned Taiwan that it would be “punished by history” if it declares independence. This comes amid an intensifying pressure campaign by Beijing to isolate Taiwan since President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party administration was elected in late 2016.

Beijing’s ire has been aggravated by a recent step-up in US governmental engagement with Taiwan under the Trump administration. This is codified in the Taiwan Travel Act, which passed Congress last week and “encourages visits between officials of the United States and Taiwan at all levels.” As a pointed manifestation of U.S. engagement, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Alex Wong delivered a speech at the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei, with President Tsai in attendance.

China’s first aircraft carrier is best regarded as a training ship for carrier operations.
Never to be outdone on nationalistic jingoism, the Global Times has chimed in: “The mainland must also prepare itself for a direct military clash in the Taiwan Straits. It needs to make clear that escalation of U.S.–Taiwan official exchanges will bring serious consequences to Taiwan.”    [FULL  STORY]