Conflict risk could rise without Beijing-Taipei channel, mainland Chinese expert warns

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The absence of a communication mechanism between Beijing and Taipei is raising the risk of a military conflict, a mainland defence analyst has warned. Photo: 81.com

Published: 11:30am, 5 Oct 2021Updated: 4:36pm, 5 Oct 2021

The lack of communication between Beijing and Taipei risks further escalation of tension across the Taiwan Strait, a mainland Chinese defence expert has warned.

Former People’s Liberation Army researcher Zhang Tuosheng said that while dialogue channels between China and the United States gave the parties a “fairly strong” prospect of avoiding military conflict, there was a greater risk of conflict between Beijing and Taipei.

“Dialogue between the two sides has stopped for a long time, and they have not established any mechanism of military and security mutual trust,” Zhang told an online forum on Saturday night.

A summary of his remarks was published on Monday by the Grandview Institution, a Beijing-based think tank he is associated with.

Months after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen was elected in 2016, Beijing cut off a communication channel set up by the State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office and the island’s Mainland Affairs Council in 2014.