China threatens Taiwan, saying Afghanistan withdrawal proves US ‘won’t help’ if war breaks out

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Liberal Senator Jim Molan says his “fear” is that a war between China and the United States may occur, and that Australia gets “caught in collateral damage”. “Or, even more frightening, the US - because it hasn’t won a war game in the last couple of years over a Taiwan scenario - is that they don’t engage and Taiwan falls,” Mr Molan told Sky News host Chris Smith. “That is the big problem”.

Liberal Senator Jim Molan says his “fear” is that a war between China and the United States may occur, and that Australia gets “caught in collateral damage”…

China has pounced on the United States’ botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, using it to threaten the island of Taiwan.

The Taliban has swept aside the US-backed government in Afghanistan, and now controls the capital, Kabul, along with most major provincial cities.

The past 24 hours have been marked by disturbing scenes at Kabul International Airport, where thousands of Afghans have swarmed the tarmac in a desperate attempt to flee. Seven of them have died, including people who tried to cling onto US planes and fell from the sky.

The Global Times, a state-affiliated tabloid newspaper, is published by the Chinese Communist Party’s mouthpiece, The People’s Daily.

In an editorial published today, The Global Times suggested America’s abandonment of Afghanistan after 20 years was an “omen” for Taiwan’s “future fate”.

China regards Taiwan as a breakaway province, and has vowed to “unify” it with the mainland. The territory’s democratically elected leaders say it’s a sovereign state.

Officially, the US considers Taiwan’s status undetermined, but is opposed to any attempt by China to force it into unification. It has sold defensive military equipment to Taiwan and established an “American Institute”, an embassy in all but name, on the island.

RELATED: Horrifying footage emerges from Kabul

#环球时报Editorial: 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 will quickly surrender. https://t.co/ZUrZmcsSWfpic.twitter.com/wFG4vrHbTo — Global Times (@globaltimesnews) August 16, 2021

The editorial argued that the situation in Afghanistan had “dealt a heavy blow to the credibility and reliability” of the US.

“How Washington abandoned the Kabul regime particularly shocked some in Asia, including the island of Taiwan,” it wrote.

“Taiwan is the region that relies on the protection of the US the most in Asia, and the island’s Democratic Progressive Party authorities have made Taiwan go further and further down this abnormal path.

“The situation in Afghanistan suddenly saw a radical change after the country was abandoned by the US. And Washington just left despite the worsening situation in Kabul. Is this some kind of omen for Taiwan’s future fate?

“(DPP politicians) must have been nervous and felt an ominous presentiment. They must have known better, in secret, that the US is not reliable.”

RELATED: The US has betrayed its allies again

From that point onwards The Global Times became even less subtle, talking openly about the prospect of a war breaking out across the Taiwan Strait.

“Once a cross-strait war breaks out as the mainland seizes the island with force, the US would have to have a much greater determination than it had for Afghanistan, Syria and Vietnam if it wants to interfere,” the paper said.

“A military intervention of the US will be a move to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, and this will make Washington pay a huge price rather than earn profit.

“Some people on the island of Taiwan hype that the island is different from Afghanistan, and that the US wouldn’t leave them alone. Indeed, the island is different from Afghanistan. But the difference is the deeper hopelessness of a US victory if it gets itself involved in a cross-strait war.

”In the past two decades, the Kabul government cost over 2000 US soldiers, $US2 trillion, and the majesty of the US against the ‘bandits’. But how many lives of US troops and how many dollars would the US sacrifice for the island of Taiwan?

“Will the US get more moral support from within and from the West if it fights for the secession of Taiwan than it did during the Afghan War?

“The DPP authorities need to keep a sober head, and the secessionist forces should reserve the ability to wake up from their dreams. From what happened in Afghanistan, they should see that once a war breaks out in the strait, the island’s defence will collapse in hours and the US military won’t come to help.

“As a result, the DPP authorities will quickly surrender, while some high-level officials may flee by plane.”

That last bit is presumably an allusion to the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who fled Afghanistan shortly before the Taliban overran Kabul.

“The best choice for the DPP authorities is to avoid pushing the situation to that position,” said The Global Times.

“They need to change their course of bonding themselves to the anti-Chinese mainland chariot of the US. They should keep cross-straits peace with political means instead of acting as strategic pawns of the US and bearing the bitter fruits of a war.”

RELATED: China taunts US over defeat in Afghanistan

The editorial was among a series of pieces the Chinese tabloid has published in the past 48 hours delighting in the Taliban’s victory.

“Defeat in Afghanistan is a complete humiliation for the US,” said one column.

“The defeat will have major implications across the world. It brings into question the competence of its political and military leadership, its willingness to engage in further military entanglements, and its reliability and commitment as an ally.

“If it can make such a huge miscalculation and suffer such a catastrophe in Afghanistan, then who is going to trust its judgment in East Asia or the South China Sea?”

You get the picture.

Chinese Media Threaten Taiwan after Kabul Debacle: ‘The Island’s Defense Will Collapse in Hours’

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Chinese media outlets carried threats to Taiwan and criticisms of the U.S. during the chaotic American withdrawal from Kabul.

An editorial by the Global Times, a Chinese state-run outlet, took aim at Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party and President Tsai Ing-wen.

“From what happened in Afghanistan, [the DPP] should perceive that once a war breaks out in the Straits, the island’s defense will collapse in hours and the US military won’t come to help,” the editorial states. “As a result, the DPP authorities will quickly surrender, while some high-level officials may flee by plane.”

The editorial called on the DPP to “keep cross-Straits [of Taiwan] peace with political means, rather than acting as strategic pawns of the US and bear the bitter fruits of a war.”

Global Times editor-in-chief Hu Xijin also commented on the Afghanistan withdrawal on Twitter.

“After the fall of the Kabul regime, the Taiwan authorities must be trembling,” Hu wrote. “Don’t look forward to the US to protect them. Taipei officials need to quietly mail-order a Five-Star Red Flag from the Chinese mainland. It will be useful one day when they surrender to the PLA.”

In a separate tweet, Hu wrote, “Chinese netizens joked that the power transition in Afghanistan is even more smooth than presidential transition in the US.”

The head of China Daily‘s E.U. bureau, Chen Weihua, encouraged CNN anchor Jim Sciutto to explain to his son that the U.S. clearly lost the Afghanistan War.

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“My son asked me yesterday if the US won or lost the war in Afghanistan. As I responded, I realized how difficult the answer is,” Sciutto wrote on Twitter.

“Tell your son: The US lost. It was a no-brainer. No need for self-glorification or narcissist self-comfort,” Chen commented.

The comments come after the Taliban seized almost all areas of Afghanistan previously under central-government control, mostly without resistance. The U.S. evacuated embassy personnel to the Kabul airport, where crowds have attempted to board flights and at least seven people have died in the chaos.

China’s state-affiliated Global Times warns Taiwan that Afghan chaos is an ‘omen’ for the island

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State-affiliated media company Global Times warned Taiwan that the US may abandon it as it did Afghanistan.

The newspaper called the chaos there an “omen” for the island.

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Taiwan’s premier hit back Tuesday and said Taiwan would not collapse like Afghanistan if it were attacked.

State-affiliated Chinese tabloid Global Times said Monday in a staff editorial that the chaos in Afghanistan should be a warning for what is in store for Taiwan should the US “abandon” it.

The newspaper said Taiwan is similar to Afghanistan in that it relies heavily on US protection. It warned that the US would not come to the island’s aid should a military conflict happen, saying the island’s defense “will collapse in hours.”

“From what happened in Afghanistan, they should perceive that once a war breaks out in the Straits, the island’s defense will collapse in hours, and the US military won’t come to help,” it wrote.

The US does not have troops stationed in Taiwan, nor does it have official diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Instead, it maintains its relationship with the country via its American Institute in Taiwan, which acts as a de facto embassy. Most recently, in April, the Biden administration sent an unofficial delegation to Taiwan, with officials saying it sent “an important signal about the US commitment to Taiwan and its democracy,” reported CNN.

The United States also sells arms to the region. Sales from the US to Taiwan exceeded $5 billion in 2020, per a Reuters report. This month, the Biden administration proposed a $750-million arms sale to the island, reported CNN.

Premier Su Tseng-chang on Tuesday hit back at concerns that Taiwan may end up being the next Afghanistan, saying the island will not collapse if attacked, reported Reuters. Su said what’s unfolding in Afghanistan shows that external help will not make a big difference to a country that is chaotic from within.

He also warned “foreign forces” looking to invade Taiwan not to be “deluded.”

“Today, there are powerful countries that want to swallow up Taiwan using force,” he said, telling Reuters “we must guard this country and this land, and not be like certain people who always talk up the enemy’s prestige and talk down our resolve.”