Published On 5/23/2026
In what is described as taking advantage of the violation of international law established by the United States and Russia, the Chinese government deployed more than one warship near the island of Taiwan, a few days after US President Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing.
The Chinese move does not only represent an attempt to use “gray zone tactics” (i.e. achieving political goals by exerting pressure between states of peace and open war), but rather it is behavior intended to deliver unambiguous messages to both the United States, Japan, and Taiwan itself, as analysts who spoke to the “Beyond the News” program say.
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One day after an American official spoke of suspending an arms deal to Taiwan due to the war with Iran, Taipei announced that more than 100 warships or ships belonging to the Chinese Coast Guard are deployed in the Yellow Sea, the South China Sea, and the Pacific Ocean, that is, in the vicinity of Taiwan.
Taiwanese National Security Council Chairman Joseph Wu also wrote on his account on the X platform that the Chinese deployment took place during the past days, accusing Beijing of sabotaging the status quo and threatening peace and security in the region.
At the same time, Agence France-Presse quoted a Taiwanese security official as saying that these ships were spotted before Trump’s visit to China, but their number was less than that.
A worrying development
This proliferation represents a very disturbing development, from the point of view of Matthew Kroenig, Vice President of the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, who said that China wants to seize Taiwan, and that it may use force to achieve this goal.
China “is using this military warning against Taiwan, which may invade it in the future, in a manner similar to what the Russians did to Ukraine, which will cost all parties a heavy price,” according to what Kroenig said, noting that President Xi Jinping “issued frightening warnings about Taiwan, during his summit with Trump in Beijing, last week.”
On the other hand, Victor Gao, President of the Chinese Association for International Studies, believes that the region “is generally at peace, despite the presence of tensions,” and that Beijing’s moves are “directed at Japanese fascism, which is trying to evade the unconditional surrender that Tokyo accepted to China, the United States, and other countries in 1945 (that is, after its defeat in World War II).”
This unconditional surrender “was not limited by time,” says Gao, who said, “The current Japanese government did not sever its connection with Japanese fascism, and is trying to change the course of this surrender, and Beijing’s assessments indicate that this government threatens peace in this region of the world.”
Taiwan will return to China
As for Taiwan, it is not concerned with these moves “because it is part of China as recognized by the United Nations, the United States, and all countries of the world,” according to Gao, who said that this unity “will be achieved,” and that the United States “should not engage in any possible civil war on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.”
The Chinese spokesman even went on to say that no one in the world “will be able to change this situation,” stressing that the Chinese President “called on Trump during their last meeting for the United States to deal wisely so that its hegemony over the world does not end.”
However, Kroenig responded to these words by saying that many countries recognize independent Taiwan, and that the United States “has always been clear and consistent in its positions. It recognizes the principle of one China, but it has strong relations with Taiwan and provides it with weapons in order to defend itself, and will support it against any possible aggression.”
Even suspending the arms deal to Taiwan does not mean a decline in this support, but rather it is the result of the consumption of a lot of ammunition in Ukraine and Iran, says Kroenig, who stressed that Trump is “unconventional in his positions, but also with regard to China and Taiwan, because he tried to reach an economic deal with Beijing without compromising military deterrence in the Taiwan Strait.”
Exploitation of America’s behavior
As for Ziad Majed, professor of political science at the American University in Paris, he believes that there are many factors that explain this unprecedented Chinese mobilization near Taiwan, including the assertion that it “will not tolerate anything related to Taiwan, especially from Japan, which continues to support the Taiwanese while American support for them is declining.”
In addition to displaying its power in front of the Taiwanese, China is also trying to benefit from the United States and Russia’s violation of international law in Venezuela, Ukraine, and Iran “to demonstrate its ability to also act outside the law in its area of influence,” Majid says.
China – from the speaker’s point of view – “is exploiting the state of violation of international law established by Washington and Moscow, in order to respond to American policies in Taiwan without direct confrontation, and to make clear to Japan that it will not be complacent regarding this issue, and to tell the Taiwanese that Trump’s visit to Beijing will not prevent the latter from regaining the island to its mother country.”
However, the professor of political science at the American University believes that the legal situation “is not as easy as the Chinese spokesman describes it, because many countries recognize the independence of Taiwan,” while stressing that Trump is “looking for the economy and selling agricultural products to China, which is more imposing itself in its surroundings.”
Accordingly, Majed believes that each party will try to use the cards it has, and that China has an advantage due to geographical proximity and Washington’s preoccupation with many global crises, “while the Taiwanese are in a serious dilemma, and may be negotiating some formula to characterize the relationship with Beijing.”
