The New York Times: Taiwan is the most important island for the US even from Greenland

According to Nicholas Kristof who wrote in the New York Times, criticizing the US President Donald Trump’s indifference to the threat to the island of Taiwan from Chinese military exercises, saying that the fate of that island is more important to US interests than the island of Greenland, which Trump has previously threatened with military action in order to seize it.

In his article, Kristof noted that Washington had failed to respond to Chinese military exercises late last month that appeared to be training for blockading the island.

Kristof questioned the extent to which President Trump will be able to respond to Chinese provocation and any actual Chinese attack on Taiwan, and did not rule out that Trump’s passivity will increase the risk that China will take reckless actions towards Taiwan.

Kristof, who is currently based in Taiwan and was the New York Times bureau chief in Beijing, believes that a potential war in Taiwan could be one of the worst disasters to hit the world in the next decade, as it foreshadows a nuclear war between the United States and China.

Kristof called on President Trump to do his best to send a clear message to Chinese President Xi Jinping that Beijing would face serious consequences if it attacked Taiwan.

In an interview with the New York Times this month, he lamented that Trump the Chinese president’s engagement with Taiwan is up to him, and what he will decide about what he will do.

Kristof described this stance as moderate and contrasts with the prevailing concern at the Pentagon, which last month released a landmark report warning of China’s gains in military power, asserting that “China expects to be able to fight and win a war in Taiwan by the end of 2027”.

The Chinese president prefers to avoid war, although it’s difficult to predict his intentions, but what is certain is that President Trump’s indifference may affect his calculations about the costs and benefits of aggression against Taiwan.

Taiwan is currently one of the most democratic places in Asia, making the most advanced electronic chips in the world, so any war there could cause a long-term global recession and deprive the US economy and military of vital inputs.

Taiwan is one of the first islands to constrain China’s ability to extend its influence across the Pacific, so losing it would be a massive setback to US military, political, and economic influence.

Washington has long pursued a policy of strategic ambiguity on defending Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, but President Trump appears to be far less inclined to protect Taiwan from some of his predecessors.

The reasons for this stance are likely to stem from President Trump’s disdain for Taiwan and considering it a small island much less important than China, and it may also be due to the weakening of President Trump’s position after Beijing responded strongly to his tariffs and restricted exports of rare metals, forcing Washington to surrender and Trump was practically at the mercy of China.

To overcome this impasse, Kristof calls on President Trump to take two decisive steps: the first is to ensure Russia’s defeat in Ukraine with military and economic means, which would make the Chinese president reluctant to attack Taiwan.

The second step, in Kristof’s view, is to strengthen America’s relations with friendly countries that will stand by it in any conflict over Taiwan, and with countries that wouldn’t mind imposing sanctions on China.

President Trump isn’t taking either of these steps and is therefore increasing the risk of war by pursuing the Greenland illusion and apparently avoiding Taiwan’s fate.