Is there an ominous parallel between Taiwan and Ukraine?

Xi Jinping has described the ‘reunification’ of China as Beijing’s ‘historical task’

Child holding 'I stand with Ukraine' poster
Showing solidarity with Ukraine in Taipei
(Image credit: Walid Berrazeg/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

“Will today’s Ukraine be tomorrow’s Taiwan?” That’s the burning question being asked here in Taipei, said Chen Yun-yu in Central News Agency (Taipei). Both Ukraine and Taiwan are cursed with neighbours with “imperial ambitions” who think nothing of subverting “the rules-based international order” – not to mention “basic principles of right and wrong”. And, like Vladimir Putin with Ukraine, China’s President Xi Jinping has used increasingly strident rhetoric to frighten Taiwan, often describing the “reunification” of China as Beijing’s “historical task”.

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