Thread: Analyst: US Should Make Clear That It Would Defend Taiwan In Event Of Chinese Invasio

Analyst: US Should Make Clear That It Would Defend Taiwan In Event Of Chinese Invasion...

China And Russia Pushing For Greater BRICS Cooperation...

12 F-16V fighter jets perform an elephant walk during an annual New Year's drill in Chiayi, Taiwan, on Jan. 5, 2022. (Ann Wang/Reuters)

TAIWAN
US Should Make Clear That It Would Defend Taiwan in Event of Chinese Invasion: Analyst

By Hannah Ng and David Zhang
April 11, 2022 Updated: April 11, 2022

The security of Taiwan is integral to broader security in the Indo-Pacific region and thus Washington should make clear that it would protect the self-ruled island if China makes a move to invade it, according to security expert Joseph Bosco.
The Chinese regime considers Taiwan to be part of its territory to be taken by force if necessary. Washington, under a policy known as strategic ambiguity, is deliberately vague on whether it would come in defense of the island in the event of a Chinese attack. But the United States is bound to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself under the Taiwan Relations Act.
Bosco referred to famed U.S. General Douglas MacArthur’s description of the island as an unsinkable aircraft carrier, saying that Taiwan’s position is critical to the security of the United States and to all other countries in the region.
Taiwan sits in the forward position in the “first island chain” that can hem in the Chinese Navy if it seeks to break out to deeper Pacific waters, he said.
The first island chain is the string of islands closest to the Chinese mainland, stretching from the southern Japanese island of Kyushu through Taiwan, the Philippines, to Indonesia. For decades, military strategists for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have seen the first island chain as a barrier before the regime can project its air and naval power to the greater Indo-Pacific region.
“If China were to take control of Taiwan, it would have an opening to all of Southeast Asia and to the greater Pacific, which includes Hawaii and the west coast of the United States,” Bosco, former China country desk officer at the Office of the Defense Secretary, recently to Epoch TV’s “China Insider” program.

If this were to occur, “our security position would be diminished, or potential leverage over aggressive nations would be reduced,” he added.
“The trade and commerce that flow through the South China Sea that greatly affects the United States and other countries in the region and outside the region would be adversely affected.”
The loss of Taiwan to the regime, he said, “would be a calamity for Western interests, overall, including also Japan, South Korea, India.”
In addition, if Taiwan falls, countries like South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam, and other Southeast Asian states “would essentially have to cozy up to China for security,” Bosco said.
The failure of the United States and the West in deterring Russian President Vladimir Putin from invading Ukraine, is a “cause of concern for Taiwan,” according to Bosco. In the leadup to the invasion, Washington did not express any firm commitment to support Ukraine militarily in the event of a Russia attack, and thus was not able to deter Putin from making a move against its neighbor.
If the same ambiguity is shown towards Taiwan, Bosco said, “it would be very counterproductive in terms of encouraging China to pursue its ambitions by building up its forces not only against Taiwan, but against the United States to prevent it from coming to Taiwan’s aid.”

Going forward, “if the West allows Russia to seize even another inch of Ukrainian territory beyond what they already have in eastern Ukraine and Crimea, then that will be touted as a victory for Putin and Russia. And Xi Jinping will draw the necessary conclusions from that,” the former Defense official said.
Bosco believes that China would move against Taiwan sooner than five years from now. But a final decision to invade, he noted, is contingent upon whether Washington will in fact declare that it will defend Taiwan.
“U.S. credibility is incredibly at stake if we don’t keep our commitments to Taiwan, both morally and under the Taiwan Relations Act and the other documents that govern our relations,” according to Bosco.
A fall of Taiwan into the hands of the regime would be, he said, “a huge loss, and a victory for the communist system, who could then argue that America is on the decline and our influence in the region is waning, and that China is on the rise and will be the dominant power in the region and beyond for decades to come.”

Audio at the page link

US Should Make Clear That It Would Defend Taiwan in Event of Chinese Invasion: Analyst (theepochtimes.com)

(From left) Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pictured at the 11th BRICS Summit in Brasilia, Brazil, on Nov. 14, 2019. (Sergio Lima/AFP via Getty Images)

WORLD
China and Russia Pushing for Greater BRICS Cooperation

By Naveen Athrappully
April 11, 2022 Updated: April 11, 2022

Beijing and Moscow have announced their intention to boost ties between the BRICS nations—a five-member alliance that includes their respective countries as well as India, Brazil, and South Africa.
China is seeking to promote financial and fiscal cooperation within the alliance, Chinese Minister of Finance Liu Kun said at the first BRICS Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting on April 8. He called on BRICS members to strengthen macro-policy coordination to boost the global economy. China will share information and conduct experience exchanges in infrastructure investment among the members.
“In recent years, BRICS countries have maintained strong cooperation momentum and made important contributions to optimizing global economic governance and boosting the resumption and high-quality development of the global economy,” Liu said.
China, which became BRICS chair at the start of 2022, is due to host the 14th BRICS summit later this year, the theme of which is to form high-quality partnerships and herald a new era of development. BRICS nations account for more than 40 percent of the world’s population and more than 20 percent of global gross domestic product.
Meanwhile, Russia, facing sanctions from Western nations, is specifically pushing for the use of national currencies and integrating payment systems within the alliance.
Sanctions have worsened the stability of the global economy, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said at the April 8 BRICS meeting. They’re also destroying the foundation of the existing financial and international monetary system that’s based on the U.S. dollar, he said.

“This pushes us to the need to speed up work in the following areas: the use of national currencies for export-import operations, the integration of payment systems and cards, our own financial messaging system, and the creation of an independent BRICS rating agency,” Sullinov said.

BRICS nations such as China and India might seek to take advantage of the lower energy prices offered by Russia while bypassing the economic consequences of Western sanctions. As a result, a notable increase in non-dollar and non-euro denominated trade is very likely, Ross Kennedy, a senior fellow at the Securities Studies Group and founder of Fortis Analysis, told The Epoch Times.
Kennedy said BRICS will be the nexus of growing consolidation between nations that will eventually form a bloc that rivals Western democratic powers.
“We are seeing the emergence of Russia–China-led sphere of economic and geopolitical cooperation that will stand in contrast to what is more of an Anglosphere, or a transatlantic type of alliance among Canada, the U.S., and our NATO partners,” he said.
“I think as we look back in three years, five years, 10 years, we’re going to see that it’s really two fully formed economic blocs that have some level of cooperation between them where necessary.”

Audio at the page link

China and Russia Pushing for Greater BRICS Cooperation (theepochtimes.com)