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Geopolitics

The Ukraine-Taiwan Analogy: Real Fears And False Correlations

The United States has no treaty obligation to send troops to protect Taiwan against China, but it has a "fairly clear" commitment to aid its defense, unlike in Ukraine. The economic stakes are also a source for worry.

A person walks under the rain with an umbrella.

A person walking in the streets if Taipei, Taiwan.

Farid Kahhat

-Analysis-

Days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the flight of Chinese jets near Taiwan provoked jitters around the world. The worries were unnecessary as Taiwan's air defense identification zone, where the jets had flown, is effectively bigger than its airspace.

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Also, the incursions were not unusual, having occurred 900 times since the air zone was created. Any comparison between the cases of Taiwan and Ukraine overlooks the fact that — beyond the current context — Taiwan is actually more important to the United States than Ukraine.


For example, while Taiwan is its ninth trading partner, Ukraine is 67th on that list. The world's main semiconductor firm is in Taiwan, and its products play a crucial role in international supply chains.

In terms of security, Taiwan is in the first of two strings of islands on which the United States would call in any bid to contain China's naval expansion.

But if Ukraine were, ever, to join the NATO military alliance, it would be only one of five NATO members sharing a frontier with Russia (Poland and Lithuania also border the Kaliningrad enclave). The frontiers of Latvia and Estonia are in turn closer to Moscow than the Russia-Ukrainian border.

A protester holds a sign saying "Taiwan stands with Ukraine"

A Taiwanese protester holds a sign in support of Ukraine.

Brennan O'Connor/ZUMA

Strategic ambiguity 

When the United States decided to establish diplomatic ties with communist China, it adopted what it termed a policy of Strategic Ambiguity toward Taiwan (the Republic of China). The ambiguity resided in the fact that the United States, while accepting Taiwan as part of a single Chinese state, did not adopt a specific posture on the issue of its sovereignty.

In terms of security, this ambiguity is enshrined in the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, which commits the United States to assist Taiwan in its defensive capacities, without explicitly committing the United States to intervene militarily to defend the island. It does state that any bid to determine Taiwan's future by non-peaceful means would be of great concern to the United States.

United States has a formal commitment to Taiwan's security, which is more than can be said of Ukraine.

There is nothing ambiguous of course about opting for ambiguity. On the one hand, it aimed at dissuading Taiwan from acting provocatively toward China, bolstered by security guarantees from the United States.

On the other hand, it was also meant to ensure the Chinese remained wary of the consequences of testing that ambiguity, as happened during the crises in the Taiwan Straits in the 1950s (when China had underestimated the likelihood of U.S. intervention).

No clear NATO commitment

But even with the ambiguity, the United States has a formal commitment to Taiwan's security, which is more than can be said of Ukraine.

NATO's conduct toward the latter is an example of what economists call perverse incentives. On the one hand, at the Bucharest summit of April 2008, the alliance promised Georgia and Ukraine they would join NATO, which fanned Moscow's security concerns (and these are real, even if exaggerated).

On the other hand, 14 years after the pledge, NATO has not even begun to process their entry nor given them security guarantees for this transition period. It is no surprise then that Russia's military interventions in Georgia and Ukraine happened after the Bucharest Summit. Lessons abound in Russia for how the West should look at China.

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Ideas

For Every Era, Its Own Fascism — This Is How Ours Is Starting To Look

Right-wing movements have surged in Europe, and fascism is on the ascendancy across disparate regions of the world. As populist leaders gain power, the specter of authoritarianism looms large.

A man with a black hoodie painting a portait of Geert Wilders

A man painting Geert Wilders portrait

Thierry Ehrman/Flickr
Oleksandr Demchenko

-Analysis-

Across the globe, worrying trends are emerging in both politics and society.

In the Netherlands, the Freedom Party, known for its anti-European, anti-Muslim, and anti-Ukrainian stance, recently won the national elections. In Argentina, newly elected president Javier Milei proposes an extreme solution to the economic crisis – destroying the central bank. Right-wing movements are gaining traction among young voters across Europe, seduced by neo-Nazi influences not seen since World War II.

China has long been operating concentration camps for Uyghur Muslims, while racism remains a major problem in Russia. Next year will witness a phalanx of critical elections worldwide, with over three billion people voting for new governments. Concerns over the potential rise of anti-democratic governments are growing in tandem.

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In this climate of deepening polarization and radicalization, many commentators have issued warnings about the free world losing ground to autocracy. But there's another underlying trend that's not being discussed directly enough: the shift towards fascism, itself. Left-wing radicalism, anti-immigrant sentiments, demographic challenges, and terrorism have all contributed to the rise of fascists camouflaged as populist dictators.

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