China’s ‘Very Tricky Situation’
As the United States rushed to evacuate people from an Afghanistan that is once again controlled by the Taliban, China has crowed over America’s failure in nearly every conceivable way. A former high-ranking member of the People’s Liberation Army has written a jubilant op-ed. State media have published scathing editorials. Chinese officials have circulated jingoistic tweets and nationalist cartoons.
Although the platform has varied, the message has been largely the same: The U.S. ran away from Afghanistan in defeat, leaving its partners behind. The lesson? Taiwan—dwarfed in size by China, separated by only a narrow strait, and with few formal friends—should prepare for the same. Best to just give up now.
Following China’s breakneck reengineering of Hong Kong, , the questions about whether (which Beijing regards as a renegade province, albeit one that the Communist Party has never actually controlled) will be next have multiplied. America’s retreat from Afghanistan has provided Beijing with an opportune moment to gloat, and to darkly remind Taiwan that even with a superpower on its side, it is still vulnerable. The story line has managed
