In one of the most overt threats yet made by China, Beijing’s new ambassador to the United States, Qin Gang, accused Taiwan of “walking down the road toward independence,” and added, “If the Taiwanese authorities, emboldened by the United States, keep going down the road for independence, it most likely will involve China and the United States, the two big countries, in a military conflict.”
Will Joe Biden’s blundering get the U.S. involved in two wars against two American adversaries at the same time? It’s feasible.
Related: The Hysterical Reaction of Biden Aides to a Map Showing Taiwan as a Separate Country From China
China has continued to ratchet up pressure on Taiwan, sending 39 aircraft toward the island nation earlier this week. And now the Chinese ambassador has explicitly warned the U.S. about helping Taiwan to achieve independence.
It’s rare for the Chinese to threaten “military conflict” so explicitly. The unfailingly polite Chinese are usually more elliptical in their warnings.
Qin arrived in Washington last year at a time of bipartisan disappointment with China. It’s widely conceded in Washington that a decades-long policy of engagement with China produced great wealth for many companies but failed to spark democratic reform. Qin told us that any ideas of “changing China” were always “an illusion.”
He spoke of the upcoming Olympics with pride: “Beijing is ready.” These are the second Olympic Games hosted by Beijing, with athletes and others largely living inside a secure “bubble” to protect against coronavirus infection.
Ambassador Qin is nothing if not a wonderful Communist mouthpiece. Of the genocide against the Uyghurs, he said, “The destination for them is prisons,” adding that others were sent to “vocational schools” to get their thoughts right.
The U.S. has become more vocal in defense of Uyghurs as overall relations have soured. If either side hoped for a reset in relations after the departure of President Donald Trump, it hasn’t quite happened. President Biden has yet to remove Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods, and U.S. diplomats have traded contentious statements with their Chinese counterparts.
Meanwhile, for the time being, the state department isn’t giving in.
The State Department said in a statement to The Post on Monday that it was “concerned by the PRC’s provocative military activity near Taiwan,” saying it was “destabilizing, risks miscalculation, and undermines regional peace and stability.”
“The US commitment to Taiwan is rock solid and contributes to the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and within the region,” the department added. “We will continue to stand with friends and allies to advance our shared prosperity, security, and values. We will continue to deepen our ties with democratic Taiwan.”
That “rock-solid” commitment to Taiwan’s independence may melt away if the Chinese seriously threaten to invade. Just as there is very little appetite for a war to defend Ukraine’s sovereignty, few in Congress would support the idea of going to war to defend Taiwan.
That said, the U.S. is not helpless against the Chinese. We could certainly arm Taiwan with weapons that would make China regret its choice of trying to take the island by force. All of China’s pretty new toys — its carriers, its shiny new planes — wouldn’t look so pretty after a war with Taiwan if it’s armed with U.S. weapons.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member