THE HALFAX HEIMDALL AUGUR

EDITORIAL: If you want peace, prepare for war - Taipei Times A large majority of Taiwanese favor strengthening national defense and oppose unification with China, according to the results of a survey by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC). In the poll, 81.8 percent of respondents disagreed with Beijing’s claim that “there is only one China and Taiwan is part of China,” MAC Deputy Minister Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a news conference on Thursday last week, adding that about 75 percent supported the creation of a “T-Dome” air defense system. President William Lai (賴清德) referred to such a system in his Double Ten National Day address, saying it would integrate air defenses into a more efficient network. The survey also found that nearly 80 percent of respondents believe that Taiwan and China are not subordinate to each other and support the government’s crackdown on public servants who obtain Chinese identification documents. Unlike polls conducted by partisan think tanks, one commissioned by the MAC should, in principle, be politically neutral. However, the sample size — about 1,000 respondents — is relatively small, and it is unclear whether their political affiliations or attit…

What The U.S. Must Do To Save Taiwan From China's Clutches Business Policy What The U.S. Must Do To Save Taiwan From China’s Clutches Steve Forbes warns that with the strategic failures of the Iran war China has never been closer to seizing Taiwan, and explains what must be done to stop Xi Jinping from achieving his imperial aims. By Steve Forbes , Forbes Staff. “With all thy getting, get understanding." Follow Author Jun 25, 2026, 06:00am EDT --:-- / --:-- This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more . This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more . An infographic showing the map of China and Taiwan created in Istanbul, Turkiye on October 15, 2024. (Photo by Muhammed Ali Yigit/Anadolu via Getty Images) Anadolu via Getty Images To counter adverse fallout with China from our failure to win the Iran war, the U.S. must redouble its efforts to save Taiwan from gradually falling into Beijing’s clutches. Despite massive damage inflicted by the American and Israeli militaries before President Trump declared a premature ceasefire, Iran’s fanatical regime has not only survived but also established a potent power over the Strait of Hormuz. Moreover, the regime hasn’t given up…

Cross-Strait Tensions and the Risk of War: The View from Taipei THE 1996 TAIWAN STRAIT missile crisis ended peacefully. Since then, East Asia has been peaceful and stable, with China emerging as the biggest beneficiary. Cross-strait relations, however, entered a new phase after US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan on Aug. 2-3. Fifteen minutes after Pelosi’s arrival at Taipei’s airport, China announced live-fire exercises in six areas around Taiwan on Aug. 4-7. The world cannot afford another regional crisis. It’s time for leaders to think seriously about how to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. PRESIDENT TSAI ING-WEN'S CROSS-STRAIT POLICY ​ The term “1992 Consensus” was coined in April 2000 by Taiwan’s then National Security Council Secretary General Su Chi, eight years after the 1992 Hong Kong meeting between Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait. The Kuomintang’s (KMT) understanding of the 1992 Consensus is “one China, different interpretations;” during a visit to Washington, DC, on June 6 this year, KMT Chairman Eric Chu called it a “no-consensus consensus.” The Peopl…

China's Growing Strength, Taiwan's Diminishing Options | Brookings Research November 9, 2010 Editor’s Note: In the third installment of the Taiwan-U.S. Quarterly Analysis, Yuan-kang Wang explains why, despite the improved atmosphere in cross-strait relations, strong Taiwan-U.S. military ties are important and can serve as a hedge against a change in Chinese intentions in the future. As China grows stronger, its weight is felt increasingly around the world. In particular, China’s growing military, economic, and political capabilities are limiting strategic options for Taiwan, whose main security threat comes from the mainland. Strengthening Taiwan-U.S. relations can help the island better protect its security. The Taiwan Strait, often considered one of the most dangerous flashpoints in international politics, appears stable at present. The last crisis took place some fifteen years ago in 1995-96, when China launched missiles which landed off Taiwan’s coast in an attempt to intimidate politicians and voters and sway the island’s presidential election. Cross-strait relations have improved significantly since President Ma Ying-jeou took office in 2008.  The two sides have signed a…

Target Taiwan: One China and cross-strait stability Key points Washington should not move away from the One China policy, as doing so would increase the risk of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. The U.S. policy of “strategic ambiguity” remains appropriate to the volatile cross-strait situation, but some policymakers overestimate the U.S. defense commitment to Taiwan. Recent administrations have taken steps to undermine the One China policy as part of an American strategy to counter China across the board, but this has had the deleterious effect of causing the U.S. and China to come to the brink of war over Taiwan. A realist approach to the Taiwan issue accepts and even seeks to strengthen both strategic ambiguity and the One China policy. In doing so, it increases the odds of negotiated solutions to disagreements while ensuring U.S. military forces are in a less vulnerable and volatile defense posture in the Asia-Pacific region. The One China policy: a status quo that works Previous papers in this series have explained why China could likely mount a successful invasion of Taiwan and why America and her allies couldn’t and/or wouldn’t do much to help. This paper will examine the One Ch…

China's strategy for conquering Taiwan without firing a shot China is refining a strategy to conquer Taiwan by weaponizing its critical infrastructure and transforming power plants, ports and data hubs into pressure points for systemic collapse, according to a Chinese military journal. The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reports that China could paralyze Taiwan without firing a shot by targeting key infrastructure—an approach likened to the “butterfly effect” in the Naval and Merchant Ships journal. The article identifies 30 to 40 “super critical” nodes—power, water, communications, and liquified natural gas (LNG) facilities – that, if taken offline, could crash Taiwan’s systems from within. It cites the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) recent Strait Thunder 2025A drill , which simulated an attack on Taiwan’s largest LNG depot, highlighting China’s growing tactical fixation on energy vulnerabilities. It claims that a well-timed strike, especially during peak conditions such as typhoons or electoral events, could rapidly destabilize Taiwan, eroding resistance and forcing capitulation under minimal military cost. Proposed methods include precision strikes, cyberattacks, electromagne…

Taiwan After the Trump-Xi Summit: From Strategic Frontline to Strategic ... Taiwan After the Trump-Xi Summit: From Strategic Frontline to Strategic Balancing Point Jinghao Zhou Download PDF May 14 2026 kikujungboy/Depositphotos Before the Trump–Xi summit in May 2026 , U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that Taiwan would inevitably be a topic of discussion between the two leaders. Although the Trump–Xi summit might temporarily ease U.S.–China tensions, the deeper and longer‑term issue concerning Taiwan, the United States, and China is how to avoid a potential military confrontation over the Taiwan Strait and the trap of systemic collapse. Taiwan must shift from being treated as a passive bargaining chip to acting as an autonomous strategic player capable of positioning itself as a “strategic balancing point” in the Asia‑Pacific. Inevitability of Taiwan’s Strategic Frontline Position In the era of U.S.–China rivalry, Taiwan has become the core intersection of strategic competition and the most critical strategic frontline in the world. First, China views unification with Taiwan as the ultimate threshold for achieving national rejuvenation or China Dream. From a geopolitical …

US misguided approach to Taiwan issue risks triggering conflict with China — embassy China hopes that the US side will take concrete actions to safeguard the stable development of the China-US relations as well as peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, Liu Chang said

Taiwan's president turns up heat against China — way up. Calling Beijing a 'foreign hostile force' gives the hawks ammunition, if that's what he wants. Speaking at a press conference on March 13, Taiwan President Lai Ching-tebroke new groundin the escalating rhetoric between the island and mainlandChina. While providing details on commonly heard complaints about Chinese infiltration, influence peddling, and pressure tactics, he went further by calling Beijing a “foreign hostile force,” a very specific phrase from the 2020 Anti-Infiltration Act. That phrase, according to the wording of the Act, applies to “…countries, political entities or groups that are at war with or are engaged in a military standoff with the Republic of China…[or] advocate the use of non-peaceful means to endanger the sovereignty of the Republic of China.” There is little doubt that China’s actions constitute a significant concern for Taiwan’s citizens and for the United States, which has a clear interest in maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. Lai was certainly correct in highlighting them. But his reference to the Act was unprecedented, effectively building on the drive launched by f…

How China Intensified Its Tactics Against Taiwan Council on Foreign Relations Share By experts and staff Published July 25, 2025 8:46 a.m. Michael Froman CFR Expert President, Council on Foreign Relations Share Sign up to receive CFR President Mike Froman’s analysis on the most important foreign policy story of the week, delivered to your inbox every Friday afternoon. Subscribe to The World This Week . In late October 1975, as the United States sought to exploit the Sino-Soviet split and forge an entente with communist China, then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger traveled to Beijing to meet face-to-face with an ailing Chairman Mao Zedong. At the time, Mao told Kissinger that China could wait 100 years to “unify” Taiwan if necessary: “if you were to send [Taiwan] back to me now, I would not want it, because it’s not wantable. There are a huge bunch of counter-revolutionaries there. A hundred years hence we will want it, and we are going to fight for it.” Some fifty years later, President Xi Jinping is angling to accelerate Mao’s timeline. In 2013, he said the Taiwan issue “should not be passed down generation after generation.” Indeed, under Xi’s leadership, China has undertaken…

Policy Brief on Avoiding War Over Taiwan - 21st Century China Center Policy Brief Avoiding War Over Taiwan by The Task Force on U.S.-China Policy Oct. 12, 2022 The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) assertive military exercises in response to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan on Aug. 2-3, 2022 — and the PRC’s continued military actions in the air and maritime space around Taiwan since then — have brought heightened attention to the risk of military conflict between mainland China on the one side and Taiwan and the United States on the other. This policy brief argues that despite rising tensions, it is both essential and possible to avoid war in the Taiwan Strait. None of the three governments wants war. But to avoid war, all three governments must avoid steps that force the other side to launch a military conflict. As tension rises between the PRC and the United States over Taiwan, strategists on both sides seem to have forgotten the lesson taught years ago by Nobel Prize-winning American game theorist Thomas Schelling: deterring an opponent from taking a proscribed action requires a combination of credible threats and credible assurances. Thus, key for United St…

America's Support for Taiwan Is at a Critical Juncture - The Diplomat For decades, the United States has been a steadfast partner to Taiwan, providing diplomatic, economic, and military support to ensure the island’s autonomy, security, and prosperity are safeguarded in the face of growing threats from Beijing. This partnership has been a cornerstone of peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific. Ensuring that Taiwan remains free from outside coercion remains a paramount U.S. national interest. But today, the strength of this relationship is being tested, not by a lack of goodwill, but by shifting perceptions in Washington and a growing sense of urgency about the military balance across the Taiwan Strait. Like great powers throughout history, the United States undergoes cyclical fatigue with its overseas commitments. After three decades of global overcommitment, Americans areincreasingly questioningthe cost and necessity of seemingly distant obligations. This fatigue is compounded by a growing perception that Taiwan, compared to other frontline states like Ukraine and Israel, is not sufficiently serious about its own defense. Fair or not, this perception is a dangerous undercurrent…