(TibetanReview.net, Jan31’22) – Chinese President Xi Jinping will employ force to unify Taiwan with China by 2027, reported asia.nikkei.com Jan 31, citing an influential Chinese academic who advises Beijing on foreign policy. The academic, Jin Canrong, who is a professor in Renmin University’s School of International Studies, is known as one of China’s most vocal hawks, with his online comments being followed by many.
Taiwan unification has long been China’s ardent goal following the founding of the communist party state of China on Oct 1, 1949 and Xi has also reiterated this objective as he looks to continue his rule for a third five-year term and beyond.
“Once the National Congress of the Communist Party of China is over in the fall of 2022, the scenario of armed unification will move toward becoming a reality. It is very likely that the leadership will move toward armed unification by 2027, the 100th anniversary of the PLA’s founding,” the report quoted Jin as saying.
Earlier, in Mar 2021, Adm. Phil Davidson, the since-retired commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee with regard to Taiwan: “I think the threat is manifest during this decade – in fact, in the next six years.”
Jin has no doubt that China can take Taiwan in one week. “China already has the capability to unify Taiwan by force within one week” and “the PLA can defeat any US force within 1,000 nautical miles of the coastline,” he has said.
Referring to Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s view that “a Taiwan emergency is a Japan emergency,” Jin has warned that Tokyo should “absolutely not intervene in a Taiwanese emergency.”
“The US already cannot win against China on this. If Japan intervenes, China will have no choice but to defeat Japan as well. [Japan] must realize that a new change is occurring.”
Jin is skeptical that peaceful unification, long pursued by his country, can be achieved, saying: “It will difficult with Democratic Progressive Party President Tsai Ing-wen in power. If [an opposition] Kuomintang candidate wins the presidential election in 2024, relations will improve, but the Kuomintang has no support.”