Xi appears to have made up his mind about Tsai—wrongly but perhaps conclusively. Recent operations by two U.S. carrier battle groups in the South China Sea were important demonstrations of willpower, but capacity matters, too.

As a former head of the State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office, Wang was well aware of the significance of this rhetorical change. Prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow has also been arrested Photo: AFP / May JAMES Lai's Apple Daily and Next Magazine … A Chinese assault on the island is neither imminent nor inevitable. Recent history reveals that the international system is vulnerable to this kind of creeping irredentism. Published by the Council on Foreign Relations We worry that more instances could be on the horizon. Beijing’s so-called wolf warrior diplomacy, aimed at intimidating countries critical of its handling of the pandemic, combined with its recent aggression on territorial issues has alienated much of the world. In addition to hardening its rhetoric against Taiwan, China has sought to isolate the island diplomatically. Given how little Beijing’s crackdown in Hong Kong has cost it to date, we are concerned that Beijing will draw the wrong conclusions about the costs of future coercion against Taiwan. But there are larger issues at stake. Doing that will require senior national security officials in China and the United States to resume the kind of candid strategic dialogue that took place during the George W. Bush and Obama administrations but that essentially ended after Trump took office. The paper’s business interests are also drifting away from Hong Kong, and toward readers in the United States and the rest of the west.

The United States should seize this opportunity to make Hong Kong a diplomatic priority. But doing so risks hurting Hong Kong’s economy more than Beijing’s and accelerating the territory’s absorption into southern China. The U.S. Congress has passed bipartisan legislation authorizing the Trump administration to deny visas and impose other targeted sanctions against those directly involved in the crackdown on Hong Kong, and the Trump administration has indicated a readiness to implement these measures. Unless the United States demonstrates the resolve and ability to resist Chinese coercion and aggression, China’s leaders may eventually conclude that the risks and the costs of future military action against Taiwan are low—or at least tolerable. The protests that have raged in Hong Kong for the last year resonated deeply with the people and the leadership in Taiwan. The new law is a profound tragedy for the people of Hong Kong, but unfortunately, there is little the international community can do to halt its implementation.

At the height of the coronavirus pandemic in May, China even excluded Taiwan from the annual meeting of the World Health Assembly in Geneva, despite the island’s global leadership in containing and mitigating COVID-19. The SCMP itself is now owned by Alibaba, perhaps the biggest pro-China organization in the world, if you don’t count the Communist Party. Indeed, Chinese authorities regularly blame “external hostile forces” for the protests in Hong Kong—and for the movement’s resonance in Taiwan and elsewhere. Its air force and navy have conducted more than ten transits and military exercises near the island since mid-January, including an increasing number of deliberate incursions into Taiwan’s airspace, according to There is little Tsai can do to convince China to dial back the diplomatic and military pressure short of accepting its unilateral definition of “one China” and its “one country, two systems” model, both of which are now wholly discredited by what has happened in Hong Kong. Taiwan and Ukraine occupy very different geopolitical contexts, but just as Putin factored the U.S. response to Russian actions in Georgia into his decision to invade Ukraine, China’s leaders will factor the U.S. response to the Hong Kong security law into their decisions about future aggression in Asia. U.S. pressure must be tempered with skillful diplomacy to ensure that Beijing sees an international coalition moving against it but doesn’t feel so threatened that it lashes out or is able to separate the United States from its allies. The magazine printed its final issue on 7 October 2016. Trump’s unilateral withdrawal of troops from NATO, his extreme demands for payment from Tokyo and Seoul, his threats to pull troops out of South Korea, and his disinterest in the G-7 and other groupings have pushed these allies away at a time when they would ordinarily be open to U.S. leadership. In our experience, dialogue of this nature was exceptionally useful in dispelling Beijing’s worst-case assessments of U.S. intentions and in clarifying that official warnings from Washington should not be dismissed as the isolated rhetoric of “hard-liners.” Even when such discussions are frustratingly one-sided, they should be seen not as a sign of weakness but as a critical investment in avoiding misperceptions that can lead to crises. The U.S. Congress should fund the initiative and hold the Pentagon accountable for its timely implementation. All the while, the United States should be quietly intensifying its preparations with Japan and other capable allies for contingencies involving Taiwan.But even shrewd diplomatic and military preparations won’t guarantee Taiwan’s security unless the United States communicates its intentions, policies, and concerns about cross-strait relations clearly and consistently to Beijing.

It has issued symbolically important joint statements on Hong Kong, first with Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom and then with the G-7. The situation in Hong Kong is a reminder that advancing this objective is rapidly becoming more difficult. As this sad end to HK Magazine shows, it is clear that it is time now for someone else to step up and provide an alternative voice for Hong Kong. And if the situation in Hong Kong deteriorates—owing to arrests of candidates in the September elections, for instance—the United States should consider sanctioning the Chinese officials responsible.

Windows 7 Exchange 2019, Sentinel Prime Toy, Dell Wyse 5740, Portland Cruise Ships, Whitby Animal Shelter, Western North Carolina Demographics, Jasper Infotech Owner, Shein Brand Net Worth, Total Rewards Slot Tournament 2020, Vaishnavi Venugopal Height, Aftershock Drink Crystals, Coase Theorem Graph, Exchange 2010 Smtp Settings, Orlando Family Vacation $99, Organic Solar Cells Efficiency, Quinton Griggs And Cynthia Parker Kiss, Veronica Webb Revlon, David Gold House, Portland Cruise Terminal, Bulgaria Visa Application Form, Hartford Healthcare Medical Group, Best Buy Mt Vernon, Il, When Did Lester Young Die, Soul Deep 2, Where Is Minnesota, Parrot Beak Anatomy, Copiah-lincoln Community College Jobs, My Spy Watch Online, Fallout 76 Events Worth Doing, Tennessee Timeshare License Exam, Vitamin Wholesalers Australia, Thurston County Marriage License, New York City Fabric, Lim College Blackboard, Clara Lukasiak Movies, Undead Knight (5e), Welsh Language Dying, ZZ Top Tour Cancelled 2020, Gallup, New Mexico, Cougar Town 6 Seasons And A Movie, Little St James Island Tunnels, Occidental Petroleum Net Worth, Unbeatable Banzuke Reddit, Razer DeathAdder Elite DPI Settings, Hyatt Dover Delaware, Saint Martin's University, Bull Moose Jackson Songs, Camille Saviola Wikipedia, Pinole California Events, My Jesus I Love Thee Lyrics, Nicknames For Storms, Elex Worth A Buy, Shadow Writing Font, Kidd Candelario Cables, Dota 1 2020, University Of Strathclyde Jobs, Prince And Madonna Relationship, Yunha Kim Wiki, Galleria Mall Map Fort Lauderdale, The Manticore W101, San Francisco Explorer Pass Costco, Please Don T Go Girl Cast, Seawolf Park Fishing 2019, Beach Rental With Private Pool, + 11moreShoe StoresDTLR, Foamcity, And More, Trey Ragas Highlights, 76ers Vs Hornets 2018, Does Peanut Butter Reduce Blood Pressure, Big Dreams Small Spaces,