Newsweek
Date: 4/13/18 AT
By: Christina Zhao
Over the past year, China has ramped up military drills around Taiwan, sparking fears of 
In 2017, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) carried out 16 drills near the self-governed island. Beijing said the exercises were routine but reiterated that it will not tolerate any attempt by the island to declare independence.
Chinese President Xi Jinping echoed the same sentiment at the National People’s Congress (NPC) last month, where he warned Taiwan that all attempts to split China would be “doomed to fail” and will invite “the punishment of history.” Xi’s speech came shortly after President Donald Trump signed the Taiwan Travel Act, which allows for and encourages high-level official visits between Taipei and the U.S., aimed at deepening ties between the two lands.
Despite China’s clear designs on the island it lost when Mao Zedong’s nationalist enemies fled there when he declared the founding of Communist China in 1949, it’s unlikely that Beijing would want to achieve reunification by means of a full-scale war. And even if it did, the mainland isn’t guaranteed to win it. [FULL STORY]