- Taiwan: all sides gear up
- Asia emancipates itself from the IMF
- Anta – the patriotic sports outfitter
- Competition violations: Beijing warns 34 platform companies
- FDP: deepening relations with China
- Sonja Peterson and Malte Winkler: uniform CO2 prices in the EU and China
“If we have to defend ourselves to the last day, we will defend ourselves to the last day,” Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu warned Beijing last week. Wu accused China of relying on both reconciliation attempts and military intimidation – sending “contradictory signals”.
The inhabitants of Taiwan are not only used to rhetorical saber-rattling around their homeland, China repeatedly sends jets into the airspace of the offshore island republic. However, the military aircraft the People’s Republic has recently sent towards Taiwan is making the people there nervous. Felix Lee analyses the situation and the reasons for Beijing’s aggressive actions, in which the US also plays a role.
Influences from the United States also have implications for Asia’s regional financial safety net: Frank Sieren explains the new changes within the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation (CMIM), which aims to deal with short-term regional liquidity problems without having to immediately call on the US-dominated International Monetary Fund (IMF) for help.
Gregor Koppenburg and Jörn Petring introduce Anta, a sportswear manufacturer that is still little known in the West. While the industry giants Nike and Adidas have to fight boycotts because of the debate about human rights violations in Xinjiang, Anta has a clear strategy: patriotism – and a clear commitment to cotton from the region.
Amelie Richter

Feature
Taiwan: all sides gear up
Felix Lee
The people of Taiwan are actually used to provocations from mainland China. In recent years, military aircraft from the People’s Republic have repeatedly intruded into the airspace of the island with its 24 million inhabitants, and ships from the Chinese mainland have come strikingly close to islands that Taiwan controls. Apart from notes of protest, the government in Taipei remained calm.
But what military aircraft Beijing has sent toward the offshore island republic in recent days is now making it nervous after all. On Monday alone, a record 25 military aircraft violated Taiwan’s air surveillance zone, the Defense Ministry in Taipei reported. After a similar maneuver by at least ten fighter jets the week before, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu warned that the island would defend itself “to the last day”. If necessary, war would be waged. And US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also warns of China’s “increasingly aggressive actions”.
Is it the usual saber-rattling? Or is the conflict over Taiwan, which the communist leadership in Beijing regards as an inseparable part of China, coming to a dangerous head? Is war possibly looming?
- Geopolitics
- Geopolitics
- Military
- Military
- Taiwan
- USA
Continue reading now
Get 30 days of free access to the Decision Brief to read these and more quality news every day.
Are you already a guest at the China.Table? Log in now