2024-03-10 07:10:10
Beijing considers the strait, which is important for international shipping, to be its own territory. Unification with Taiwan would strengthen Beijing’s military power in the Indo-Pacific. Even a blockade and no invasion of the island would cost the global economy trillions.
“Yes, politicians are important, but geography is even more important,” writes British journalist Tim Marshall in his bestseller “The Power of Geography.” One of the most explosive examples of how geographical location determines the fate of a country is Taiwan. 130 to 180 kilometers separate the democratically governed island in the Western Pacific from mainland China. In between lies the Taiwan Strait. Not only do around half of the world’s container ships pass through the strait, as do a large proportion of the freighters that head for ports in Hong Kong and northern China. It is also increasingly becoming a military hotspot.
Taiwan is part of China. At this year’s National People’s Congress session, China’s leadership once once more reaffirmed its territorial claim over the island to which China’s nationalists fled following their defeat by the communists in the 1949 civil war. Historical and nationalistic factors also play a role in the pursuit of unification, if necessary by force. But Taiwan’s explosive location is far more central to Beijing.
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