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The Star
18-05-2025
- Business
- The Star
Taiwan more likely to face blockade or economic warfare from Beijing than invasion: panel
Beijing is more likely to carry out a blockade or economic warfare against Taiwan rather than an invasion, witnesses and lawmakers said at a congressional hearing on Thursday, even as they urged the US to prepare for all scenarios. 'The most likely scenario is they're going to try this cyber-enabled economic warfare campaign,' said Mark Montgomery, a retired US rear admiral and senior director at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, testifying before the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. 'Beijing will want to force Taiwan's capitulation through less drastic methods' than a military takeover, he added. Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team. As for what such a campaign would entail, Montgomery believed it would target Taiwan's financial, energy and telecommunications sectors, and involve 'malicious' cyber activity. Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the self-governed island by force and is committed to arming it. In recent years, the US has grown increasingly anxious about a mainland takeover, with officials and lawmakers eyeing 2027 as a possible window, and pointing to more frequent People's Liberation Army sorties crossing the Taiwan Strait's median line as signs of growing aggression. Nevertheless, some at Thursday's hearing said that increased PLA activity did not necessarily indicate an imminent or likely invasion. 'While these air crossings happen almost daily, making invasion seem possible, a more likely scenario is a CCP-led blockade of the island,' said Raja Krishnamoorthi, an Illinois Democrat and the committee's ranking member. Taiwan should stockpile commodities like natural gas, soy and corn as a way to deter such a blockade, the congressman added. And even if a mainland invasion was not likely, the US still needed to prepare for it, witnesses said. Beijing's 'goal would be to subjugate Taiwan without invading', said Charles Flynn, a retired US army general, but 'we cannot discount the threat that they pose by what they do with their air, maritime and ground forces'. Flynn, who served as commander of US Army Pacific from 2021 to 2024, warned on Thursday that the US must bolster its land-based military capabilities in case it needed to support the self-governed island militarily. 'For far too long, we've invested in exquisite systems to fight a sea and air campaign but left ourselves exposed where it matters most: on land where wars are won or lost,' he said. Meanwhile, Kurt Campbell, deputy secretary of state under former US president Joe Biden, testified that Washington should invest more in its naval capabilities to deter any aggression from Beijing. 'This is a naval theatre,' Campbell said, adding that America's answer to a potential mainland blockade of Taiwan would be its submarine force. More from South China Morning Post: For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2025.
Epoch Times
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
US Tariffs Threaten China's Globalist Goals
Commentary For the last quarter century or more, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been building the case for, and laying the framework of, a Beijing-led new world order. The CCP's ultimate goal is to replace the existing U.S.-led liberal international order, which operates within the geopolitical and economic framework of multilateral organizations, such as the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and other agencies that have evolved since World War II. The problem for the communists is that the existing global order promotes liberal values and freedoms, including speech, press, association, and political expression, which directly undermine the CCP's ongoing efforts to pacify and control the Chinese people and oppressed minority groups. As a result, the Party has developed a strategy that employs the language of the values of the current order while incrementally implementing a multipolar framework that enhances Beijing's prestige, influence, and leadership, which could be labeled as 'globalism with Chinese characteristics.' While repeating Beijing's platitudes of 'win-win cooperation,' 'peaceful cooperation,' and 'democracy with Chinese characteristics,' the CCP aims to weaken Western values and the concept of universal human rights while substituting the sovereignty of individual states and non-interference in their domestic affairs as primary emphases. Translation: Beijing rejects the values that shape modern civilized nations, as well as all foreign criticism of the Chinese regime's human rights violations. State-run Chinese media routinely propagate supporting messages promoting a CCP-led new world order. Consider this headline from Global Times on April 7: 'China is willing to work together with countries, including Canada, to safeguard multilateralism and multilateral trading system.' Related Stories 4/22/2025 4/19/2025 Under the Xi Jinping regime, the word 'global' has increasingly crept into Chinese communist propaganda. At various intervals, Xi has announced several global initiatives that have a dual purpose: to demonstrate so-called Chinese altruism and world leadership in matters important to all of humankind and to psychologically condition foreigners to the inevitability of the CCP's global leadership. Let's examine those initiatives and what the future may portend for globalism with Chinese characteristics. Global Digital Economy Partnership City Cooperation Initiative Marked by annual conferences held in China, this initiative aims to promote exchanges and cooperation between cities worldwide, create a mutually beneficial market environment that is open to all, foster an ecosystem conducive to digital technology innovation, and accelerate urban digital transformation. It also supports green development powered by digital technologies and encourages inclusive cooperation in the global digital sector. This initiative is Beijing's tactical siren song for the Digital Silk Road, which presents the same data privacy and cyberespionage pitfalls for the unsuspecting. An engineer opens the door of a server unit during an organized tour of Huawei's cybersecurity lab in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, China, on April 25, Data Security Initiative In response to U.S. efforts to promote the banning of Chinese tech companies, in 2020 Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi proposed this initiative, which includes principles that should be followed for the safeguarding of personal information and preventing cyberespionage and mass surveillance. Since China has its own rules for censorship and data-sharing, as implemented through the Great Firewall, the likelihood that countries will sign on to this initiative is problematic at best. Does anyone really believe that Beijing will not ask Chinese companies to transfer data overseas to the Chinese regime in breach of other countries' laws? The Europeans are certainly Global Development Initiative Proposed by Xi in 2021, this initiative is intended to promote the achievement of the United Nations' The key areas are net-zero emissions and green development, as China is the world's largest producer of solar panels, electric vehicles, and other green-tech components. The Trump administration is taking the opposite approach by withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Accords (again) and abandoning massive Biden-era green subsidies. The Europeans are also learning about the pitfalls of shedding hydrocarbons and nuclear plants for green power production promises (blindly, from the perspective of outside observers). The Chinese are about to learn economic lessons from the great capitalist Global Security Initiative This initiative promotes the adoption of Chinese-centric security norms and operational practices within the existing frameworks of multilateral organizations, such as the U.N. and ASEAN, as key building blocks of global peace. The Global Security Initiative integrates the Chinese regime's fundamental diplomatic principles, including the importance of state sovereignty and territorial integrity, non-interference in the internal affairs of countries, and opposition to unilateral sanctions and bloc confrontations. In announcing the initiative, Xi invoked the concept of indivisible security to make China's ongoing defense of its core interests seem more palatable to regional partners. The problem for the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan, and other countries is that the CCP's interests always seem to come at their expense, especially in the South China Sea. The other problem with the initiative is that it promotes the expansion of international Chinese policing. A number of countries, including the United States, have had recent encounters with Chinese police stations that have been discovered to have been hubs for the Global Civilization Initiative Announced by Xi in 2024, this initiative promotes a China-centric state-focused and state-defined values system aimed at eliminating universal values in areas such as human rights and democracy. This CCP-dominated 'new world order' will replace the current international order that has dominated global development since World War II. As The best countermeasures to this grandiose initiative include the continuing exposure of the CCP's human rights violations, persecution of Chinese minority groups, Concluding Remarks The problem for Xi and communists is that many nations have caught on to what would be in store in a future world dominated by the CCP: a continuation of Chinese mercantilism at the expense of their own economies, increasing diplomatic threats and intimidation backed up by the belligerence of the People's Liberation Army, debt traps associated with Chinese investments, economic and cyber espionage, intellectual property theft, cultural genocide, and a trampling of basic human rights. Recognizing those threats, the Trump administration is isolating China with a new tariff regime aimed at rebalancing international trade and undermining globalism with CCP characteristics. Those tariffs will price out Chinese over-production in the American market (a stake in the heart of one of their mercantilist pillars), put pressure on other countries to tariff Chinese products to earn favor with the United States, undermine Chinese development of supply chains through third party countries to avoid U.S. tariffs and regulations, and pressure China to remove non-tariff regulations and restrictions that impede fair trade. The U.S. implementation of reciprocal tariffs is isolating China and effectively ending its globalist dreams of a Chinese new world order. Note that China was the only country to blink when President Donald Trump announced the new tariff regime; only China responded by raising tariffs. The Trump administration understands that reciprocal tariffs are kryptonite to China's export economy, which was built through Beijing's decades-long exploitation of the World Trade Organization and other international institutions that have promoted free trade. And that's great for the world! Make All Nations Great Again! Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Philippine city says donations from alleged Chinese spies were accepted in good faith
MANILA (Reuters) - A Philippine city that accepted donations of money and policing equipment from groups connected to Chinese nationals subsequently accused of espionage had received them in good faith and without strings attached, its mayor said on Tuesday. Reuters reported last week that four Chinese nationals arrested by Philippine authorities in January had led civic groups overseen by the Chinese Communist Party's foreign influence network. "These contributions were accepted in good faith by the recipients thereof with the sincere intention of enhancing public service and no conditions or obligations were attached to them," Tarlac City Mayor Cristy Angeles said in a statement. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. She said donations from the groups included 15 motorcycles, five each for the city police, the province's police force, and the city government's public order and safety office. The city government had also received a donation of 100,000 pesos ($1,730), which the Department of Education spent on dental kits for school children, and another for 200,000 pesos in 2023 that has so far not been used, she said. A July 2022 article published on the social media account of a CCP-led body engaged in "united front work" showed one of the accused Chinese spies handing a cheque worth 500,000 pesos to Angeles. She said the government did not receive that amount from the group. "These donations, given their insignificant amount, in no way influenced our decision-making process in governance nor led to any substantial collaboration thereafter," Angeles said in the statement. A senior Philippine government official said on Monday authorities will look into the cash and other gifts to determine whether or not they were given with ulterior motives. The four are among at least eight suspected Chinese spies the Philippines has arrested in recent weeks. Relations between the two nations have soured in recent years over maritime disputes in the South China Sea where they have overlapping claims. ($1 = 57.79 Philippine pesos)
Reuters
04-03-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Philippine city says donations from alleged Chinese spies were accepted in good faith
MANILA, March 4 (Reuters) - A Philippine city that accepted donations of money and policing equipment from groups connected to Chinese nationals subsequently accused of espionage had received them in good faith and without strings attached, its mayor said on Tuesday. last week that four Chinese nationals arrested by Philippine authorities in January had led civic groups overseen by the Chinese Communist Party's foreign influence network. "These contributions were accepted in good faith by the recipients thereof with the sincere intention of enhancing public service and no conditions or obligations were attached to them," Tarlac City Mayor Cristy Angeles said in a statement. She said donations from the groups included 15 motorcycles, five each for the city police, the province's police force, and the city government's public order and safety office. The city government had also received a donation of 100,000 pesos ($1,730), which the Department of Education spent on dental kits for school children, and another for 200,000 pesos in 2023 that has so far not been used, she said. A July 2022 article published on the social media account of a CCP-led body engaged in "united front work" showed one of the accused Chinese spies handing a cheque worth 500,000 pesos to Angeles. She said the government did not receive that amount from the group. "These donations, given their insignificant amount, in no way influenced our decision-making process in governance nor led to any substantial collaboration thereafter," Angeles said in the statement. A senior Philippine government official said on Monday authorities will look into the cash and other gifts to determine whether or not they were given with ulterior motives. The four are among at least eight suspected Chinese spies the Philippines has arrested in recent weeks. Relations between the two nations have soured in recent years over maritime disputes in the South China Sea where they have overlapping claims. ($1 = 57.79 Philippine pesos)
