Is Taiwan warming to mainland China as Beijing turns up the heat?
While hardline rhetoric on the mainland usually increases pro-independence sentiment on the island, new polls suggest it’s more complicated than that
It is so popular that it can be heard repeatedly on the streets on any given day, possibly because it sums up how many people here feel towards the mainland: they hope to benefit from China’s economic rise, yet they have no plan to return to the mainland’s fold, at least for now, fearing that could sacrifice the democracy and freedom they have long held.
Top officials in Beijing, already irked by Trump’s approval of the National Defence Authorisation Act in December to allow high-level military exchanges with Taiwan, chastised Washington and warned Taipei against harbouring any illusion of declaring independence.
Are the US and China headed for war over Taiwan?
Stridency over Taiwan has since hardened on the mainland, with talks of reunifying Taiwan by force if necessary. Retired General Wang Hongguang told the state-run Global Times that the People’s Liberation Army has six effective ways to “unify” Taiwan within 100 hours.