Target Taiwan: Why China Is Desperate for Control of Taipei

April 24, 2021 Topic: TaiwanChina Region: Asia Tags: ChinaTaiwanGeopoliticsStrategyXi Jinping

Target Taiwan: Why China Is Desperate for Control of Taipei

U.S.-China tensions have risen to an unprecedented scale, which now appears to be drifting away from the forty-two-year-old policy of peaceful co-existence.

Indeed, the defense of Taiwan is more than symbolic for the United States and its overall commitment to Asia. Retreating from this commitment will not only mean irreversible damage to U.S. credibility, but it will also validate Beijing’s belief of an America in decline, and that the United States is on its own way to a “century of humiliation.”  

Dr. Patrick Mendis, a former American diplomat and a military professor in the NATO and the Pacific Command in Japan and South Korea, is a distinguished visiting professor of global affairs at the National Chengchi University in Taipei. A former Taiwan fellow of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he is also a senior fellow of the Taiwan Center for Security Studies in Taipei. 

Joey Wang, a graduate of the US National Defense University and the US Naval War College, is a defense analyst in Washington, DC. Both are alumni of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. The views expressed in this analysis neither represent the official positions of the current or past institutional affiliations nor the respective governments.  

Image: Reuters