It also gives rise to a concern that Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te, who in recent speeches has increased warnings about the threat from China, may be further emboldened in his rhetoric, said Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based foreign policy think tank Defense Priorities.
Already, Lai’s words have prompted China to accuse him of pursuing Taiwanese independence, which is a red line for Beijing. Goldstein said he worried Taiwan may try to take advantage of the American “use of force against Iran to increase its deterrent situation versus the mainland.”
“President Lai’s series of recent speeches appear almost designed to set up a new cross-strait crisis, perhaps in the hopes of building more support in Washington and elsewhere around the Pacific,” said Goldstein, who also is director of the China Initiative at Brown University’s Watson Institute.
“I think that is an exceedingly risky gambit, to put it mildly,” he said.
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