Trump claims that china backs biden. But who will stand up for taiwan? | thearticle

In his rambling, rousing, rumbustious speech, controversially delivered from the White House, to close the Republican National Convention, Donald Trump mentioned China many times. He accused

his Democratic opponent Joe Biden of voting to “ship our jobs to China and many other distant lands”. He called Covid-19 the “China virus” and denounced Biden for opposing his travel ban on

China. And he claimed that “China supports Joe Biden and desperately wants him to win. I can tell you that, on very good information.” Unlike many other dubious assertions in Trump’s

tirade, the last claim does, in fact, stand up to scrutiny. The US intelligence community stated on August 7: “We assess that China prefers that President Trump — whom Beijing sees as

unpredictable — does not win re-election.” What Trump did not mention, depite speaking for 70 minutes (Biden’s Convention speech was less than half as long), was the security threat posed by

China. True, he promised to boost defence — “we will defend America against all threats — and boasted of giving pay rises to the military. And he included the following, fiercely

anti-Chinese, passage:   “Washington insiders warned me not to stand up to China. They pleaded with me to let China continue stealing our jobs, ripping us off, and robbing our country blind.

But I kept my word to the American people. We took the toughest, boldest, strongest and hardest-hitting action against China in American history by far.” Yet this passage is all about

trade, not security. Trump is a passionate protectionist, but his deal with China has a long way to go before it can correct the imbalance in trade between the two countries. After the

pandemic, relations have soured so much that China is even less likely to fulfill its side of the deal, promising to import more US goods and reduce state subsidies to its exports. On the

more serious subject of Chinese aggression and repression, the President had nothing to say. There was no mention of human rights violations in Xinjiang or Hong Kong. China’s wayward ally

North Korea, which loomed so large earlier in his administration, was also absent. Beijing’s expansion right across the Far East and beyond was passed over in silence. Even more ominously,

there was no security guarantee for Taiwan. Even as Trump was speaking, however, Xi Jinping was acting. While the US President promised to bring back jobs from China, his counterpart in

Beijing was firing “carrier killer” missiles into the South China Sea. The Chinese tests of their new DF-21D and DF-26B ballistic missiles was dressed up as a response to the Americans

sending a U2 surveillance aircraft to spy on naval exercises that included the aircraft carrier _Shandong. _But Beijing’s gesture had obviously been planned after a recent show of strength

in the region by the US Pacific Fleet, including two carrier battle groups. The missiles, which are nuclear-capable, are intended to send a specific message to Washington: the South China

Sea is Beijing’s lake and any attempt by the United States to use force there will be treated as an infringement of Chinese sovereignty. This is a particularly sinister development for

Taiwan, over which China also claims sovereignty. The Taiwanese President, Tsai Ing-wen, was elected on a policy of standing up to Beijing, but this week she urged caution on both sides:

“The risk of conflict requires careful management by all the parties concerned.” What Mrs Tsai is worried about is clear from a statement issued from Hawaii by Mark Esper, the US Defense

Secretary, in response to the Chinese provocation: “The United States has a responsibility to lead…We’re not going to cede this region, an inch of ground if you will, to another country…

that thinks their form of government better than what many of us share.” The Pentagon, in other words, is not backing down; it is doubling down. The question is: where do Trump and Biden

stand? If Xi were to directly menace Taiwan, would the United States be prepared to risk the 200 warships of its mighty Pacific Fleet, its air base in Guam, and even its own civilians in

Hawaii? Would Trump, who accuses Biden of sacrificing American lives in foreign wars, initiate a new one for the sake of an island state that China ruled for thousands of years and has

consistently claimed since Chiang Kai-shek fled there with his nationalist Kuomintang followers in 1949? Would Biden, who as Vice President in the Obama Administration missed every

opportunity to challenge China’s record at home and abroad, suddenly be reborn in the White House as a foreign policy hawk? Unfortunately for the free world, which includes Taiwan, there are

no good answers to these questions. We are back to the brinkmanship of the Cold War. Beijing could spring an “October surprise” that would not only turn the American election campaign

upside down, but send the global economy back into the doldrums, just as the Covid-19 depression is beginning to lift. What would deter the Chinese from such a reckless course would be a

bipartisan statement from both candidates, reaffirming the American commitment to preserve freedom and democracy in Taiwan, if necessary by force. In the past, this has been a bipartisan

position. In 1996, President Clinton sent the USS _Nimitz _battle group through the straits of Taiwan to deter Chinese threats. The same aircraft carrier made an appearance in the region_,

_along with the USS _Ronald Reagan, _a few weeks ago. But China is stronger and the situation is more volatile than it was a quarter of a century ago. If Trump and Biden send contradictory

signals to Xi, Taiwan’s future will soon look as bleak as that of Hong Kong.