China’s leaders are giving up on political hopes of reunification – and considering military options.
Foreign Policy
Date: May 22, 2018
By: Derek Grossman
Just hours after staging the largest display of naval forces in its history in the South China
Taiwanese sailors salute the island’s flag on the deck of the Panshih supply ship after taking part in annual drills, at the Tsoying naval base in Kaohsiung on January 31, 2018.
(Photo credit should read MANDY CHENG/AFP/Getty Images)
Sea on April 12, China announced that it would abruptly pivot to conducting live-fire military drills in the Taiwan Strait six days later. The bombastic exercises went ahead — and Beijing followed up with several recent bomber flights around the self-governing island as well.
According to the Chinese nationalist tabloid Global Times, Beijing felt compelled to proceed with the exercises to “check ‘Taiwan independence’” and because “the US has been containing China on the Taiwan question.” And it’s been exactly Beijing’s perception or misperception of these two factors — the political status of Taiwan and how close Taipei and Washington have become — that have come to dominate cross-strait relations in recent months, substantially raising the risk of military conflict.
As left-wing parties have collapsed, the sole option remaining for voters is conservatism or right-wing populism. [FULL STORY]
