China: August 14, 1999

Archives

China continues its police and propaganda campaign against Falungong practitioners. Attention is also being paid to the even larger number of qigong exercise/meditation groups (with over a hundred million practitioners.) Diplomatic and military pressure continues against America and Taiwan over Taiwan's independent status. Militarily, China has fewer options than it appears. Taiwan has two fortified islands less than five kilometers from the Chinese coast, but even taking these would take more navy resources than China possesses. Taking Taiwan is clearly beyond Chinas capabilities, even without the aid of the U.S. Navy. China could try and blockade Taiwanese ports, but the Taiwanese could do the same to Chinese ports, and China needs it's overseas as much as Taiwan does. China could threaten nuclear war, but that would be a diplomatic disaster, and it is greatly outmatched in that area by the United States.

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contributions. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   Contribute   Close