US political moves, war planning risk destabilising Taiwan Strait, analysts say

Name: Mainland China launches military drill near Taiwan in ‘severe warning to separatist forces’
Uploaded: 2023-11-21T10:44:16.000Z
Duration: 2 min 36 s
Description: Mainland China launches military drill near Taiwan in ‘severe warning to separatist forces’

‘Washington needs to be focused a little bit less on planning for an invasion,’ says CSIS expert Jude Blanchette

KMT representative Alexander Huang says Beijing is bogged down with economic problems

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It is in Washington’s interest to avoid actions capable of destabilising the status quo over Taiwan, an analyst says. Photo: AFP

Liu Zhen

Published: 6:44pm, 21 Nov 2023Updated: 10:54pm, 21 Nov 2023

Washington should focus more on bolstering peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and less on a potential war between the self-ruled island and mainland China, according to analysts speaking at an online forum on Monday.

Jude Blanchette, Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said it would be in Washington’s interest to avoid actions capable of destabilising the status quo, such as then-house speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei last year.

“I think the attention in Washington needs to be focused a little bit less on planning for an invasion,” he said at a forum organised by the Centre for Globalisation Hong Kong.

“More broadly, we need to think about how we can, and what tools we need, to help maintain the status quo.”

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Mainland China launches military drill near Taiwan in ‘severe warning to separatist forces’

“I don’t think … that [Chinese President] Xi Jinping is drawing up active plans for an invasion [of Taiwan] any time soon,” he said, adding that Beijing has been actively engaged in trying to shape the outcomes of the Taiwanese presidential election in January and closely monitoring US domestic politics and the 2024 US presidential race.