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Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned this week China is accelerating plans to take over the democratic-ruled island of Taiwan and disrupt a fragile status quo that has kept peace across the Taiwan Strait.
In recent years, the ruling Chinese Communist Party has altered its approach toward Taiwan, Mr. Blinken said Monday at a forum at the Hoover Institution at Stanford.
“Instead of sticking with the status quo that was established in a positive way, a fundamental decision [was made] that the status quo was no longer acceptable and that Beijing was determined to pursue reunification on a much faster timeline,” Mr. Blinken said.
Beijing has said if peaceful means do not work in taking Taiwan, coercive measures will be applied, he said.
“And possibly, if coercive means don’t work, maybe forceful means to achieve its objectives, and that is what is profoundly disrupting the status quo and creating tremendous tensions,” Mr. Blinken added.
Army Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told Congress in May that China is making progress in building forces for an attack on Taiwan. In particular, the People’s Liberation Army has strengthened joint warfighting capabilities; modernized command, control, computer, intelligence, and information systems; and expanded the use of advanced technologies.
“These advances would give the PLA an improved ability to execute a number of military operations, including the invasion of Taiwan,” Gen. Berrier said.
China’s military options against Taiwan include coercive military activities, increased military presence operations, “an air and maritime blockade, seizure of Taiwan’s smaller outlying islands, and a full-scale amphibious invasion of Taiwan itself,” he said.
No timetable has been announced for a takeover of the island, but in the past three years the PLA has increased its rhetoric and military activity around Taiwan, including large numbers of military flights into the island’s air defense zone. Since August, the PLA has deployed more warships to the waters around Taiwan and increased air incursions as well. Large numbers of Chinese warplanes have also crossed the median line separating the 100-mile-wide Taiwan Strait
Mr. Blinken’s comments were made a day after President Xi Jinping declared in a major speech that China will never renounce the use of force in its drive to reclaim Taiwan, which broke with the mainland in 1949 as Nationalist forces fled to the island during a civil war.
The Chinese leader blamed the current tensions on “separatist activities” seeking formal independence of Taiwan.
“We have resolutely fought against separatism and countered interference, demonstrating our resolve and ability to safeguard China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and to oppose Taiwan independence,” he said.
