China doesn’t want to invade Taiwan right now, but it could take other action against the island, China expert and author Gordon Chang told Newsmax Monday. Chang said on “Newsline,” “The concern is that China will try to impose a quarantine around Taiwan, and senior officials in Taiwan have been talking to various foreigners who have been visiting the island, that they're worried that China might do that within six months.
“Now, a quarantine is technically not an act of war, like a blockade would be, but it would have serious ramifications.”
Taiwan’s navy commander, Adm. Tang Hua, said in an interview last week that China was using an “‘anaconda strategy’ to squeeze the island,” adding that Chinese forces are “slowly, but surely” increasing their presence around Taiwan.
“Right now, China does not want to invade the main island of Taiwan, and it would take enormous casualties. A war like that would be exceedingly unpopular with the Chinese people,” Chang said. “And Xi Jinping just does not trust his military. But he's thinking if he does something short of war, like a quarantine, maybe that would work, and that would be an anaconda strategy, as the Taiwanese admiral said.”
Chang China’s strategy is to bait the other side into firing first. He said, “This is evident not only with regard to what's occurring in Taiwan, but also especially in the Philippines, in the South China Sea, where since the middle of June, China has been engaging in extremely belligerent acts, some of which constitute acts of war. But the Filipinos have been very restrained.”
Chang also suggested Chinese President Xi Jinping may be waiting to see how the U.S. election shakes out before taking bold action. Chang said, “I think that the Chinese look at Donald Trump and believe that he is unpredictable. The Chinese can deal with a hostile American president, but they can't deal with an unpredictable one.
“Xi Jinping likes Biden because Biden is predictable. And so therefore, you can see that there's a difference between the way the Chinese handled Biden and the way that they dealt with Trump.”
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Kate McManus ✉
Kate McManus is a New Jersey-based Newsmax writer who's spent more than two decades as a journalist.
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