Leaders | America, China and Taiwan

How to avoid war over Taiwan

A superpower conflict would shake the world

EUROPE is witnessing its bloodiest cross-border war since 1945, but Asia risks something even worse: conflict between America and China over Taiwan. Tensions are high, as American forces pivot to a new doctrine known as “distributed lethality” designed to blunt Chinese missile attacks. Last week dozens of Chinese jets breached Taiwan’s “air defence identification zone”. This week China’s foreign minister condemned what he called America’s strategy of “all-round containment and suppression, a zero-sum game of life and death”.

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This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “How to avoid a third world war”

From the March 11th 2023 edition

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