Sitting on China’s doorstep, Taiwan is closely allied with the United States adding to Beijing fears the island could be used as a platform for western forces to mount operations into mainland China. Politicians in Beijing claim they have made numerous offers to Taiwan, based on economic gains, to tempt the island back into the fold. But the obvious lack of progress is forcing Beijing to flex its military power with an increase in recent naval wargames in the Taiwan Straits in what appears to be a demonstration to remind the island’s administration of China’s overwhelming capability. China and Taiwan have had separate governments since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. But Beijing has long tried to limit Taiwan’s international activities and reunite the island. Tensions have increased in recent years as the Taiwanese people remain happy to be Chinese but not part of China. Beijing has made the subject re-unification a ‘political promise’ and not ruled out the use of force to take back Taiwan. Although Taiwan is officially recognised by only a handful of nations, its democratically elected government has strong commercial and informal links with many countries. Like most nations, the US has no official diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
China is surrounded by nations with strong military forces. It remains concerned that Japan will re-arm. It faces the might of America across the north Pacific and has Russia, India, Vietnam as well as both North and South Korea as neighbours. Beijing has pledged to reunify Taiwan by political or military means. But China is in a difficult political situation. If it were
