| For decades, China has coveted its island neighbor. Is Xi Jinping ready to seize it?  Illustration by Malika Favre Today, President Biden and Xi Jinping met for nearly three hours in Bali, where, facing each other for the first time as top leaders, in a moment of progress, they agreed to restart climate talks. But on the issue of Taiwan, the future remains uncertain. Xi said that Taiwanese independence was as incompatible to peace and stability as “fire and water.” And while Biden noted that an invasion of Taiwan did not appear to be “imminent,” China has long sought reunification with the island—a prospect that Dexter Filkins explores in a deeply reported piece in this week’s issue. In recent months, Chinese leaders have ramped up air and naval encroachments on the island, but when Filkins visited Taiwan earlier this year—after undergoing a mandatory quarantine—he found it “too caught up in the stresses and entertainments of prosperous modern life to think much about the enemy next door.” The idea of unification usually garners single-digit support in polls; and for the younger generation in Taiwan, “the fear of invasion has simply lasted too long to feel urgent,” Filkins writes. If China invades, will Taiwan be prepared to fight—and for how long would its military, which some experts believe is rooted in outdated strategy from the nineteen-eighties, be able to hold off China? Crucially, will the U.S. intervene? As Filkins writes, “both sides are caught—seemingly unable to back down without appearing to concede.” —Jessie Li, newsletter editor | 
No comments:
Post a Comment