US actions could raise risk of war over Taiwan, warns Chinese leading military researcher
- Zhou Bo from the PLA’s Academy of Military Science says Beijing does not want to use force to reunify island but it was worried about some US actions
- Comments come after two US-based researchers argue there is no reason to believe that either side is preparing an immediate strike
US actions in the Taiwan Strait could increase the risk of war, even though neither side wants a military confrontation, a prominent Chinese military researcher has said.
Zhou Bo, an honorary fellow at the Centre for China-America Defence Relations at the Academy of Military Science of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, said China was reluctant to use force against Taiwan because it sees the people as their compatriots.
“The development of cross-strait relations is not solely decided by the Chinese mainland. It is, on the contrary, a result of the interaction between Taipei, Washington and Beijing,” he said.
Zhou was reacting to an article written by Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia and director of the China Power Project at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, and Jude Blanchette, Freeman Chair in China Studies at the CSIS, which was published by the South China Morning Post on Thursday.
