TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Ahead of the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party slated on Oct. 16, TVBS commentator Wenchi Yu invited MIT scholar Professor M. Taylor Fravel to share insights on Washington's possible involvement in the cross-strait stalemate.
As U.S. President Joe Biden recently went on to CBS's "60 minutes" segment to once again claim that the U.S. military would assist Taiwan should China decide on using forces to invade the island, Fravel remarked that it's unlikely that U.S. policies toward Taiwan have changed.
Even so, U.S. Speaker Nancy Pelosi's recent visit to Taiwan has enraged China. To this, Fravel pointed out that the subsequent military exercises China conducted in response are certainly suggestive.
However, the military expert believes that China has been paying close attention to the Russia-Ukraine war and the devastation it caused to the economy and society; therefore, it's unlikely that China's first step toward Taiwan will be a forceful invasion.
Still, though China seems to have no direct timeline of a "reunification" on the table, for now, tense cross-strait relations are likely to continue for some time as both parties across the Taiwan Strait stand their ground.
