UPI
Date: Dec. 5, 2019
By: Joe Snell

Since the election of Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-Wen in 2016, tensions between China and Taiwan have increased. File Photo courtesy of Office of the President of Taiwan

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 (UPI) — The chances that China will invade Taiwan have increased, but the risk might be too great, two experts said at a conference in Washington, D.C.

"As each day, week, month and year pass over the course of the next decade, there will be increasing pressure within Zhongnanhai to use force," James Fanell, former U.S. Pacific Fleet director of intelligence and information operations, said at a Center for Strategic and International Studies conference. Zhongnanhia is the headquarters of the Communist Party of China.

But Tim Heath, a senior international defense researcher at the RAND Corp., said at the conference Wednesday that China knows using military force could strengthen alliances trying to dampen Chinese growth as a global leader.

In 1949, China's Communist Party defeated the Nationalist army, known as the Republic of China, and founded the People's Republic of China. The ROC evacuated to Taiwan and made Taipei its capital.    [FULL  STORY]