EDITORIAL - Watch China

With what is happening now in Europe with Russia invading Ukraine, a territory that it insists is part of its own, people half a world away can’t help but look sideways and cast a wary eye on China.

Like Russia with Ukraine, China has long been wanting to subjugate a territory that it also insists is theirs; the sovereign country of Taiwan. And like Ukraine with Russia, Taiwan doesn’t want to be part of China.

Like Russia, China has also been known to push boundaries --sometimes quite literally when we refer to their buildings of artificial islands far beyond their Exclusive Economic Zone.

Far from condemning Russia’s actions, China even refuses to call the ongoing war an invasion.

"Taiwan is not Ukraine. Taiwan has always been an inalienable part of China. This is an indisputable legal and historical fact," China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said recently.

Before the war in Ukraine broke out, the naïve and those not familiar with how NATO and geopolitics works thought as soon as Russia would invade Ukraine, NATO, the EU, the US, and their allies come to help repel the invaders.

Of course, this did not happen. While it was only the Ukrainians who fought with arms, the rest of the world did so the only way they could --with sanctions and condemnation against Russia.

But because banks can’t stop tanks, it cannot be blamed if some people are disappointed at the West’s supposed reaction to this invasion. No doubt such a perceived weak reaction may spur China into thinking that if Russia can get away with, so can they.

While Russia President Vladimir Putin has said time and again he does not want to occupy Ukraine despite his actions to the contrary, China has made it clear that they do intend to subjugate and occupy Taiwan someday.

Considering how China has been harassing Taiwan with frequent flights into its airspace, this may only be a matter of time.