The abduction of deposed Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro on Saturday bolstered Washington’s global credibility without setting a precedent for China to attempt a similar action in Taiwan, a policy expert said.
Atlantic Council vice president Matthew Kroenig made the remarks at a panel discussion in Washington on Tuesday.
US special operations forces on Saturday carried out a nighttime operation in Caracas to capture Maduro, following a series of paralyzing airstrikes directed against Venezuela’s Russian-made air defense systems.
Screen grab from the Atlantic Council’s YouTube channel
The US military operation represented an opportunity for Washington to tackle the threat posed by Maduro’s government in the form of narcotics trafficking and the flow of refugees, Kroenig said.
Iran is changing its approach to its handling of ongoing protests in response to the raid, as US President Donald Trump has threatened to intervene to protect the demonstrators, he said.
Commentary suggesting that the US has set an example for Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to target Taiwanese political leaders is unfounded, as Beijing has long claimed Taiwan to be an internal Chinese territory, he said.
Xi’s calculations regarding the use of force in Taiwan are concerned with the balance of power and political trends in Taiwan, not any action undertaken by the US, he said.
US allies in the Indo-Pacific region were less concerned about any potential precedents the operation would set than impressed by the military capabilities on display, Kroenig said.
Some Asian allies have expressed hopes that common regional adversaries would take notice of US military power the operation showcased, he added.
Certain actions might be necessary for the US to re-establish deterrence against potential foes to ensure peace, which the strike on Caracas has done, he said.
The strikes have caused China and Russia to dial back or adjust their “malicious” interference campaigns in the western hemisphere, although there would likely be structural challenges elsewhere, he said.
Separately, a former Pentagon official on Tuesday said that China is unlikely to succeed in capturing Taiwan’s leaders in a swift aerial military operation due to Taiwan’s extensive air-defense systems.
Kris Osborn, a former expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the US Army, wrote on the defense news Web site 19FortyFive that the US’ operation targeting Maduro was an example of a modern “decapitation strike” intended to disable an adversary’s ability to fight without widespread destruction.
The operation relied on precise intelligence, surveillance, and strikes on key military targets and power infrastructure, enabling US special forces to capture Maduro with “little to no unwanted damage,” he said.
Osborn said that Venezuela has only “a small number of Russian-built air defenses, which appear to have been destroyed quickly by US forces,” while Taiwan operates a “much more extensive and elaborate” air defense network, making helicopter or aircraft strikes extremely difficult despite China’s intelligence capabilities.
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