Military conflict between Taiwan and China is likely if tensions continue on their current course, former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger said, although he still holds out for dialogue that will lead to de-escalation.
“On the current trajectory of relations, I think some military conflict is probable, but I also think the current trajectory of relations must be altered,” Kissinger said in an interview with Bloomberg News editor-in-chief John Micklethwait when asked about the possibility that China would invade Taiwan.
The remarks, delivered as Kissinger looked back on his life and career soon after his 100th birthday, were some of his most downbeat about the state of relations between China and the US, which has vowed to back Taiwan in the event China attacks.
Photo: AP
Kissinger said it was up to Washington and Beijing to step back from their standoff, which he said was at “the top of a precipice.”
Kissinger, who served as the US’ top diplomat and national security adviser in the 1970s, spoke days before his latest successor, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, is set to travel to Beijing.
Blinken would be the highest-level US official to visit China in five years and the White House is looking to set expectations low, saying there would be no breakthroughs.
Kissinger, the author of numerous books including On China, written a year before Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) took power, is closely watched for his views on Asian geopolitics given his secret trip to China in 1972 and his role in normalizing US-China relations under then-US president Richard Nixon.
Kissinger said he is still undecided about the outcome of the strains between the US and China, given that “they have not yet actually engaged in the sort of dialogs that I’ve suggested.”
However, the one thing he said he knows for sure is that wars between two superpowers cannot be won.
Or they are “winnable only at costs that are out of proportion,” he said.
“It’s a unique situation in the sense that the biggest threat of each country is the other — that is, the biggest threat to China is America, in their perception, and the same is true here,” he said.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
STRIKE: Some travel agencies in Taiwan said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group tours to the country were proceeding as planned A planned strike by airport personnel in South Korea has not affected group tours to the country from Taiwan, travel agencies said yesterday. They added that they were closely monitoring the situation. Personnel at 15 airports, including Seoul’s Incheon and Gimpo airports, are to go on strike. They announced at a news conference on Tuesday that the strike would begin on Friday next week and continue until the Mid-Autumn Festival next month. Some travel agencies in Taiwan, including Cola Tour, Lion Travel, SET Tour and ezTravel, said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
RSS