US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned that Beijing is speeding up its plan to invade Taiwan. His statement comes a day after Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated his determination to take over Taiwan in his opening speech during the ruling Communist party's 20 national congress.
Blinken, while attending an event at Stanford University on Monday with previous Secretary Condoleezza Rice, said Beijing would use force if it couldn't achieve its Taiwan mission through peaceful means.
"Instead of sticking with the status quo that was established in a positive way, [Beijing has made] a fundamental decision that the status quo is no longer acceptable, and Beijing is determined to pursue reunification on a much faster timeline," Blinken said.
Blinken added: "If peaceful means didn’t work then would employ coercive means, and possibly if coercive means don’t work then maybe forceful means to achieve its objective. That is what is profoundly disrupting the status quo and creating tremendous tensions."
He added that the US would "honour its commitments to Taiwan" and aid the self-ruled democratic island's ability to defend itself.
Though the US has a longstanding 'one-China' policy guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, it opposes any unilateral changes to the status quo. Washington claims not to support Taiwan's independence but President Biden had repeatedly reiterated that Washington would defend Taiwan.
China too had recently stepped up intimidation tactics against Taiwan with the People's Liberation Army conducting live-fire drills around the island, in retaliation to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit. Chinese military planes and jets had also frequently crossed the median line, which China never did before.
The US had earlier too hinted that China will develop the ability to take over Taiwan - senior defence officials had predicted it would happen by 2027 while some analysts say Taiwan will come under Xi’s goal of national rejuvenation by 2049.
Xi Jinping too made it clear that Taiwan is indeed a goal when he said on Sunday, "We will continue to strive for peaceful reunification with the greatest sincerity and the utmost effort, but we will never promise to renounce the use of force."
Despite Blinken's warning, many experts do not think China intend to use force in the near term. "It is possible that Secretary Blinken is concerned about the pace and scope of China’s military modernization, which clearly is focused on Taiwan, but China’s military capability alone does not indicate intent to use force in the near term,” Drew Thompson, a scholar with the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and former US state department official, told The Guardian.
He added that though Xi's could change his decision in an instant, it takes years to build that capability.