Member-only story
China Will Not Use Afghanistan As An Excuse To Invade Taiwan
But American right-wing media is China’s “useful idiot”
After the fall of Kabul, conservative news and opinion outlet National Review was quick to fill its front page with how terrible President Biden’s leadership has been, and how he has shown the world how weak America is by withdrawing our troops from Afghanistan. Of course there was no mention of how the previous president had intended to pull out all our troops by May 2021 and had released 5000 Taliban prisoners (some of whom are part of Taliban leadership now) in exchange for a three-month ceasefire. But that’s a story for another time.
The National Review was also quick to point out how Chinese state-run media are using our withdrawal from Afghanistan to threaten Taiwan:
From what happened in Afghanistan, those in Taiwan should perceive that once a war breaks out in the Straits, the island’s defense will collapse in hours and US military won’t come to help. As a result, the DPP [Taiwanese ruling party] will quickly surrender.
Yes, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) allows its state-run media to be its mouthpiece, to make threatening claims so the government doesn’t have to do so itself. But even in addition to all the saber-rattling by the Chinese military over the past few…