Ex-Nato chief says Europe ‘too naive’ on China’s Taiwan threats
Taiwan lives under constant threat of invasion by China, which claims the self-ruled democracy as part of its territory to be taken one day. — Reuters pic
Thursday, 05 Jan 2023 2:27 PM MYT
TAIPEI, Jan 5 — European powers must do more to dissuade China from invading Taiwan, including being prepared to unleash painful economic sanctions and train Taiwanese troops, the former head of Nato said Thursday.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who is visiting Taipei, said European and Nato powers were “too naive” in the run-up to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and risked repeating the same mistake with Beijing.
Taiwan lives under constant threat of invasion by China, which claims the self-ruled democracy as part of its territory to be taken one day.
“The world hasn’t so far paid sufficient attention to the tensions in the Taiwan Strait,” Rasmussen told reporters.
“And we should realise that the conflict between China and Taiwan has, and will have, global repercussions. So we have a global interest in preventing those tensions from escalating into an armed conflict.”
Rasmussen argued that while the United States must remain Taiwan’s primary military ally, European and Nato powers should be prepared to put in place policies that will make Beijing “think twice” about an invasion.
“I think we should react determinedly if China were to attack Taiwan, and we should replace strategic ambiguity with strategic clarity,” he said.
In the years leading up to Moscow’s invasion of its neighbour, European powers began training Ukrainian troops.
“We could do exactly the same with servicemen and women from Taiwan, we could conduct such training and exercises on European soil,” Rasmussen said.
He added that military and cyber defence equipment could be shared “to make Taiwan capable to defend itself by itself”.
But above all, he argued, Europe’s contributions would need to be “comprehensive and profound sanctions against China” in the event of an invasion.
‘Too weak, too accommodating’
Rasmussen conceded that such sanctions would hit European nations hard because China is so deeply embedded within the global economy.
But he said he believed Russia’s war in Ukraine had begun a shift within European powers when it came to dependence on autocracies.
“We have built a Europe based on security provided by the United States, cheap goods from China and cheap gas from Russia. That model doesn’t work any longer,” he argued.
“We should not repeat this mistake by being too weak, too accommodating when it comes to China,” he added.
President Xi Jinping, China’s most assertive leader in a generation, has made clear that what he calls the “reunification” of Taiwan cannot be passed on to future generations.
Last year saw a spike in tensions as Beijing ramped up military pressure and launched its largest war games in decades to protest against a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in August.
China opposes any official exchanges with Taiwan, and has reacted with growing anger at a flurry of visits by Western politicians to the island.
Asked about Rasmussen’s visit, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday that “any attempts to create ‘two Chinas’ or ‘one China, one Taiwan’ are doomed to fail”. — AFP
Thursday, 05 Jan 2023 2:27 PM MYT
TAIPEI, Jan 5 — European powers must do more to dissuade China from invading Taiwan, including being prepared to unleash painful economic sanctions and train Taiwanese troops, the former head of Nato said Thursday.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who is visiting Taipei, said European and Nato powers were “too naive” in the run-up to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and risked repeating the same mistake with Beijing.
Taiwan lives under constant threat of invasion by China, which claims the self-ruled democracy as part of its territory to be taken one day.
“The world hasn’t so far paid sufficient attention to the tensions in the Taiwan Strait,” Rasmussen told reporters.
“And we should realise that the conflict between China and Taiwan has, and will have, global repercussions. So we have a global interest in preventing those tensions from escalating into an armed conflict.”
Rasmussen argued that while the United States must remain Taiwan’s primary military ally, European and Nato powers should be prepared to put in place policies that will make Beijing “think twice” about an invasion.
“I think we should react determinedly if China were to attack Taiwan, and we should replace strategic ambiguity with strategic clarity,” he said.
In the years leading up to Moscow’s invasion of its neighbour, European powers began training Ukrainian troops.
“We could do exactly the same with servicemen and women from Taiwan, we could conduct such training and exercises on European soil,” Rasmussen said.
He added that military and cyber defence equipment could be shared “to make Taiwan capable to defend itself by itself”.
But above all, he argued, Europe’s contributions would need to be “comprehensive and profound sanctions against China” in the event of an invasion.
‘Too weak, too accommodating’
Rasmussen conceded that such sanctions would hit European nations hard because China is so deeply embedded within the global economy.
But he said he believed Russia’s war in Ukraine had begun a shift within European powers when it came to dependence on autocracies.
“We have built a Europe based on security provided by the United States, cheap goods from China and cheap gas from Russia. That model doesn’t work any longer,” he argued.
“We should not repeat this mistake by being too weak, too accommodating when it comes to China,” he added.
President Xi Jinping, China’s most assertive leader in a generation, has made clear that what he calls the “reunification” of Taiwan cannot be passed on to future generations.
Last year saw a spike in tensions as Beijing ramped up military pressure and launched its largest war games in decades to protest against a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in August.
China opposes any official exchanges with Taiwan, and has reacted with growing anger at a flurry of visits by Western politicians to the island.
Asked about Rasmussen’s visit, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday that “any attempts to create ‘two Chinas’ or ‘one China, one Taiwan’ are doomed to fail”. — AFP
*********
kt comments:
Only 13 UN member states plus the Vatican City (UN Assembly Observer status only) recognise Taiwan and thus have diplomatic relationship with the Island. The 13 UN member states are Belize, Guatemala, Haiti, Holy See, Honduras, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Paraguay, St Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Swaziland and Tuvalu, generally small nations whose diplomatic recognitions have been, sad to say, "bought" by Taiwan.
To be considered a country in today's global political sphere, a territory must be diplomatically recognized by the UN's 193 member states - alas, only 13 countries (and Vatican City/Holy See) recognize Taiwan as of April 2022, BUT many others do not.
Therefore Taiwan is currently not in the UN and is classified as only a territory—a part of China.
Thus the former head of NATO Anders Fogh Rasmussen has been talking cock in calling upon European nations to "interfere" with a territory of China, a UN Security Council member. We know Rasmussen has been toeing the American line in sprouting such nonsensical lines, but America (USA) herself has been a double standard hypocrite because in October 2017 news media reported:
The US government said it wants Spain to remain united amid the ongoing dispute over Catalan independence.
Heather Nauert, her then State Department spokesperson, said “Catalonia is an integral part of Spain, and the United States supports the Spanish government’s constitutional measures to keep Spain strong and united”.
Did Nancy Pelosi say "What a beautiful sight to behold!"
That echoed President Donald Trump, who said during a joint press conference with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in September that it would be “foolish” for Catalonia to secede.
“I think Spain is a great country, and it should remain united,” Trump said.
Did Rasmussen tell European powers to do more to dissuade Spain from oppressing Catalan, including being prepared to unleash painful economic sanctions on Spain and train Catalan troops?
Of course the USA and her acolytes Europe want China to disintegrate, fearing her economic and consequentially military prowess. But that's precisely the sort of hypocrisy the Wankees and her client-states practise, using political nonsense to curb an economic rival, either out of duplicitous economic undercutting or just out of plain jealousy.
Catalonia has been an integral part of Spain from the days of the Reconquista wars against the Moors 600 years ago.
ReplyDeleteTaiwan has never been ruled by Communist China , not one single inch of land, not one single second of time.
THAT is the difference between Spain's right to insist on Catalonia being an indivisible part of its territory, and Communist China's Kerbau claim over Taiwan.
Mfering kerbau from the cesspool!
Delete"Catalonia has been an integral part of Spain from the days of the Reconquista wars against the Moors 600 years ago.
Taiwan has never been ruled by Communist China , not one single inch of land, not one single second of time"
Mfer, where is that administrative continuity of the successive govt structure in yr fart?
How many govt have changed from the time of Reconquista, that Catalonia was been an integral part of Spain?
Ditto with Taiwan vis-a-vis China under CPC!
Ooop… don't parade yr know-nothing even with a lousy twist to our fart lah.
Hypocrisy abundance! Especially amongst those anmokausai acolytes.
ReplyDeletePutin has announced an unilaterally cease fire during the Russian Orthodox Christmas celebrates normally in January.
Would those newbies Protestant/Catholic response in kind?
Taiwan has a President, a legislature, its own laws, its own army.
ReplyDeleteTaiwan exists...there is no denying that.
The Chinese Communist Party must realise that any attempt to take over Taiwan by force will come at enormous, gigantic cost, to Taiwan for sure,but also for the People's Republic of China.
And don't try to bullshit about that the gigantic cost is not relevant to China - every country has its limits to the amount of pain it can endure.
Thus, proven yr bananalized anmokausai indoctrination!
DeleteThe gigantic cost IS relevant to China! It's ingrained in her history & in every descendants of Chinese.
That spirit has been proven many a time in her tumultuous & tempestuous passage of time.
No cost is more gigantic than preserving the WHOLE territory of China.
"Taiwan lives under constant threat of invasion by China...." Reuters
ReplyDeleteBullshitting as always, from these warmongering West ! China won't invade Taiwan, in fact, China isn't going to invade anybody ! The record for the past 40 years speaks for itself.
IT IS ONLY WESTERN NATIONS that bomb, invade, overthrow, conquer, ravage other nations in order to suppress, in order to steal their resources. How so often we see the Western leaders and its mouthpiece media accusing China of imperialism but in actuality, this is an obscene lie. China is about the only country that rises peacefully without conquest and plunders. It is the West that has its own hands horribly tainted with brutality and evil and as its own hypocrisy would have it, it practises the advice of Goebbels - Accuse your enemy of what you are guilty of.
The US is now getting horribly desperate to curb China's rise and threat to its hegemony but it needs its proxies to do the dirty for its own agenda...we see how it used NATO and Ukraine to try to destroy Russia and now it thinks it can use NATO&Gang to ukraine Taiwan too but China won't fall into this very obvious trap. China won't be provoked into a war with Taiwan which is one of its own province or killing its own citizens. China's foreign policy is the opposite of the US'....it rejects violence as a tool except in the most extreme of circumstances.