Taut Taiwanese Tensions: The United States and China

The relationship between the United States and China is the most ireful it has been in decades. Since as early as 1949, if not earlier, tensions between the United States and China have been taut. Recently, those tensions have heightened due to conflict over Taiwan. One factor motivating China in this pursuit of Taiwan is China’s desire to reinforce its global dominance and consolidate its power. President Xi Jinping of China said the “reunification” with Taiwan must be “fulfilled.” However, both figuratively and literally, Taiwan argues that it is distinct from China’s mainland, as it has its own constitution and its own democratically elected leaders on the island 100 miles off the coast of southeast Asia. Considering the prominent diplomatic and economic coordinations between China and Russia, emerging concerns contemplate whether China will follow in Russia’s footsteps and invade the smaller territory of Taiwan, as Russia did with Ukraine. President Joe Biden of the United States has said a total of four times now, that if a similar situation presents itself, the United States will overtly back Taiwan. If China does go on the attack to take Taiwan, there is no scenario in which Taiwan could defend itself without a United States intervention. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi spoke with Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-Wen just last week to convey and convince Taiwan of Biden’s well-expressed commitments. However, as Center Fellow of Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute, Oriana Skylar Mastro said, zeroing in on signaling the United States’ commitments is somewhat “misguided.” China is already calculating around a United States’ intervention, so rather than informing China, it only “provokes them.”