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Concerns over a Chinese invasion of Taiwan continue to mount with Beijing now suspected of involvement in damaging some of the island nation's undersea internet cables this week in another show of deliberate harassment. The disruption to Taiwan’s internet was not only a nuisance for the island’s inhabitants and visitors, it also revealed significant implications for Taiwan's national security.

Strategic relations between China and Taiwan are at their lowest point in 40 years. China views Taiwan as a province, while the government of Taiwan considers itself a sovereign state. The Nationalist Chinese government has ruled Taiwan since 1949. Following the Chinese Civil War, Chiang Kai-Shek, the Nationalist leader exiled to Taiwan and formed his own government there. In the early 1980s, China devised a governmental solution that allowed Taiwan to have autonomy known as "One country, two systems." The 2016 election of Tsai Ing-Wen escalated tensions as she campaigned for independence from China and rejected Chairman Xi's plan for...

As tensions persist between the U.S. and China over the future of Taiwan, Chinese state media has warned a "military showdown will come" and described the possible scenario as "a life-and-death struggle" between the nations. The Global Times, which is published by the ruling Chinese Communist Party, shared the opinion article on Friday after U.S. military officials have increasingly warned about China's threat to Taiwan's autonomy. The editorial highlighted remarks from U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, who expressed concern this past week about the "rapid expansion" of China's navy. Taiwan, an island nation, is claimed by China...

It’s a real possibility China could take over Taiwan and seize the majority of the world’s production of chips, which are used in aircraft, warships, submarines, cars, iPhones, computers, and more.If Americans think the shortage of cars due to chip supply issues is bad, then consider what it would mean if the U.S. military were deprived of the advanced chips required for its arsenal of war equipment. It’s a real possibility as the world’s largest and most advanced semiconductor manufacturers sit precariously, approximately 100 miles off the coast of communist China on the island of Taiwan.In total, Taiwanese companies supply...

Joe Biden’s Weakness and Worldwide Economic Turmoil Make a Chinese Invasion of Taiwan Almost CertainIf Biden won't protect his own people in Afghanistan, would he lift a finger to defend Taiwan? That's the question the Chinese Communist Party is trying to answer.It’s been a while since I wrote about foreign affairs. I tend to focus on the pressing matter of the moment and in a world with Pandemic Panic Theater pushing universal vaccinations, ongoing efforts to expose the stolen 2020 election, the supply chain and energy crises, and an evil Mainstream Media Industrial Complex that is enabling all of the...

China is stepping up military preparedness to overtake Taiwan, the island’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said on Wednesday, following a recent spike of Chinese drills near the island which Beijing considers its own. Taiwan has complained that China has stepped up threatening military activities near Taiwan in recent months. Beijing has not renounced the use of force to bring the democratic island under its control. “Looking on the long-term trend, China appears to be gradually stepping up its military preparedness, especially in air or on the waters near Taiwan,” Wu told reporters. “What China is doing now is continuing to...

China is reportedly deploying aircraft carriers into war games in waters near Taiwan, sparking fresh fears an invasion may be imminent.The Communist Party of China (CPC) is sending two new warships to an area near the Pratas Islands.

China's PLA forces carry out landing drills near Taiwan outpost days after elections PUBLISHED : Thursday, 21 January, 2016, 8:22pm UPDATED : Thursday, 21 January, 2016, 8:28pm The People's Liberation Army based in the Fujian provincial city of Xiamen - 10km opposite one of self-ruled Taiwan's outposts - has carried out live-fire exercises and landing drills just days after the pro-independence opposition party won elections in Taiwan. Military experts said the drills were aimed at sending a "political warning" to Taiwan's president-elect Tsai Ing-wen, chairwoman of Democratic Progressive Party, that Beijing would never give up using "non-peaceful means" to solve...

HONG KONG – The Taiwan-Mainland China services trade agreement, signed in June, is still not in effect after having been blocked by Taiwan’s opposition Democratic Progressive Party, which is insisting on an article-by-article inspection of the accord by the Legislative Yuan, or parliament. Since President Ma Ying-jeou came into office in 2008, 19 cross-strait agreements have been signed, resulting in direct sea and air transport links, more mainland tourists visiting Taiwan and an explosion in trade, which grew 46.5 percent in the first quarter of this year to reach $51.44 billion, according to China’s General Administration of Customs. The most...

(Reuters) - China will be able to fend off U.S. forces and successfully invade Taiwan by 2020, the island's Defence Ministry said on Wednesday, the first time Taipei has given such a precise timetable for the threat it says it faces. China and Taiwan have been ruled separately since Nationalist forces, defeated by the Communists, fled to the island at the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. China considers Taiwan a renegade province and has never ruled out the use of force to bring it under its control. While relations have improved dramatically since the China-friendly Ma Ying-jeou...

Editor’s note: Abraham M. Denmark is vice president for Political and Security Affairs at The National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR), and previously served as Country Director for China Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Tiffany Ma is a project manager at NBR. The views expressed are their own. According to Chinese media, Defense Minister General Chang Wanquan arrived in Washington last month to meet U.S. Defense Secretary Hagel with a grand bargain in mind: that Beijing would adjust its military deployments along the Taiwan Strait if the United States ended arms sales to Taiwan. Although a...

Is Taiwan falling into the same predicament as Hong Kong, in the sense that it is also being threatened by some of the major problems that the former British colony has faced since returning to Chinese rule? Some Hong Kong residents obviously think so. A few hundred pro-democracy activists ran an advertising campaign in newspapers in both Hong Kong and Taiwan earlier this week, demanding that unpopular Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying step down because of his failure to solve these problems. They also warned Taiwan of the risks of opening its doors wider to China. They said for...

Taiwan authorities on Tuesday announced new measures to relax entrance restrictions for certain "professionals" from the Chinese mainland. The island has decided to issue special entry permits to elite mainlanders working in fields such as education, mass communications and art and literature. With the special entry permits, they can freely enter or exit Taiwan within a one-year validity period, according to the local department in charge of internal affairs. Under current policies, people from the mainland must apply for a single-pass entry permit prior to each time they enter Taiwan. The policies have greatly affected mainland people who have to...

TAIPEI -- Chinese author Mo Yan, who won the 2012 Nobel Prize for literature, will visit Taiwan in September to share his literature dreams with local readers. Mo will give a speech on his dreams as a writer at the second Hsing Yun World Humanities Forum in Kaohsiung on Sept. 15, said the Venerable Master Hsing Yun Public Education Trust Fund, which is co-organizing the forum with the Global Views Educational Foundation. The Nobel laureate will also participate in a panel discussion at the forum with Global Views Monthly co founder Charles Kao and Hsing Yun, a Buddhist monk and...

Taiwan has started a computerized military exercise to simulate a scenario of China’s launching of an invasion on the island in 2017. The five-day maneuver that started on Monday is part of Taiwan’s biggest annual military drill with this year’s exercise being codenamed 'Han Kuang 29', AFP quoted defense ministry officials as saying. The Taiwanese defense ministry said that the drill simulates a surprise attack followed by a large-scale invasion by China in 2017. It did not, however, provide any explanation as to why the scenario was being considered for that specific year. “Over the past few years, ties across...

China on Tuesday again warned the United States against selling arms to Taiwan, amid media speculation that Washington could soon act on the island's request for new weapons. "We firmly oppose the US selling arms to Taiwan," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters at a regular briefing, saying Beijing has had "serious consultations" with Washington on the issue. "We urge the US to recognise the gravity of selling arms to Taiwan... cancel any plans to sell arms to Taiwan and stop selling arms to Taiwan so as not to damage China-US relations." Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou, despite warming ties...

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has held talks in China on the final leg of her six-nation Asian tour. President Hu Jintao told Ms Rice that its new law designed to limit Taiwan's independence ambitions promoted "peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits". Washington has opposed the move, but Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, whom she also met on Sunday, told her he hoped the US would respect the law. The US also hopes to persuade China to help curb North Korean nuclear plans. The Bush administration wants China to do more to force North Korea to halt its nuclear...

BEIJING - In measured but resolute terms, China's leader warned Taiwan on Friday against pursuing "creeping independence" and said Beijing would thwart any step by the independently ruled island toward declaring sovereignty. President Hu Jintao spoke as legislators gathered to consider a draft law that would codify China's legal right to attack Taiwan and seek unification by military means. "We will never tolerate Taiwan independence and never allow the Taiwan independence forces to make Taiwan secede from the motherland under any name or by any means," Hu told a preliminary session before Saturday's start of an annual 10-day meeting of...

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese major general-turned-vice minister, speaking days before Taiwan's parliamentary elections, warned the island against miscalculating Beijing's determination to crush its separatist dreams. China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since their split at the end of the civil war in 1949 and warned of war if the island formally declares statehood. Tensions have been simmering since Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's re-election in March. "There can be no peace (if) Taiwan (becomes) independent, there can be no stability (if) Taiwan splits," the official People's Daily on Thursday quoted Wang Zaixi, a vice minister of the policymaking Taiwan Affairs...

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese Communist Party chief and President Hu Jintao has urged the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to prepare for a military struggle, but stopped short of singling out rival Taiwan as the target. Many security analysts see the Taiwan Strait as the most dangerous flashpoint in Asia. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has threatened to attack if the democratic island of 23 million people declares independence. Hu, who assumed the role of military chief less than two weeks ago, told the 2.5-million-strong PLA to "seize the moment and do a good job of preparing for a military...