China will ramp up its harassment campaign aimed at Taiwan to show it can “control” the self-governing island without having to shoot a single shot, experts have warned.
President Xi Jinping has signalled on multiple occasions he hopes to reclaim Taiwan despite Washington’s warning Beijing would face dire consequences in the case of an attack.
The People’s Republic has increased its campaign of intimidation in the weeks after this month’s presidential elections, which saw the election of pro-US Lai Ching-te.
Beijing has sent spy balloons into Taiwanese airspace almost daily both before and right after the vote in a move geopolitical analysts suggest is an attempt to weaken calls for the island’s independence.
RAND Corporation senior policy researcher Kristen Gunness suggested growing balloon activities are an “extension” of the air and maritime pressure campaign China has been exercising.
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They cited China’s economic issues as well as the Chinese leader’s ongoing military shake-up as factors indicating an invasion won’t be forthcoming.
Political economy professor Ho-fung Hung argued the balloons are part of a tactic to undermine the Taiwanese pro-independence movement.
The Johns Hopkins University expert said: “They are basically trying to squeeze the airspace and then blur the line between Taiwan and mainland China as much as possible to establish a kind of status quo in which this kind of integration between Taiwan and China is no longer concrete or clear.
“They are creating a status quo in which there’s no clear boundary anymore.”
