| “This is a crisis manufactured by China, one with the potential to shake the global economic order given that Taiwan produces the lion’s share of the world’s advanced semiconductors,” CFR President Richard Haass tells the Financial Times. “Should a crisis spiral into a conflict, it would also fundamentally challenge the Indo-Pacific strategic order, as U.S. allies and others would expect Washington to come to Taipei’s defence.”
“Chinese leaders are increasingly enraged over U.S. actions that they see as hollowing out Washington’s ‘one China’ policy and Taiwanese actions—both domestic legislation and international outreach—that they interpret as moves toward independence,” the Stimson Center’s Yun Sun writes for Foreign Affairs.
This Backgrounder explains why China-Taiwan relations are so tense.
On The President’s Inbox podcast, CFR’s David Sacks and James M. Lindsay discuss the Biden administration’s Taiwan strategy. |