Tensions rise as China makes largest ever air incursion in Taiwan

tensions continue to rise between taiwan and china china sending 56 warplanes into taiwan's air defense zone monday alone the largest incursion ever and the numbers have been rising and rising it brings the total number of chinese warplanes up to 149 into taiwan since october 1st now taiwan's president is warning that if the country falls to china it would trigger catastrophic consequences for peace in asia joining me right now is fox news senior strategic analyst general jack keane general thanks very much for being here always a pleasure to talk with you your reaction to what's taking place here well certainly this is the largest scale of these military incursions we have ever seen back in in june they were in the 20s and in april around the same a number of things happening here certainly the acceleration post-afghanistan collapse in terms of the intimidation and coercion on the taiwanese people not having a credible ally in the united states is certainly part of the fabric of this story also there are there are regional issues taking place and the first one is is a major international maritime exercise led by the united states japan and the united kingdom three aircraft carriers two of the united states united kingdom's first aircraft carrier the uss that uk elizabeth excuse me and also japan's got an amphibious carrier out there as well so that's part of it also taiwan has applied to get back into the revised pacific trade deal and china has applied for it also i think overall what president xi is doing here is a couple things one he's making certain his military is practicing what it would have to do if there was actually a real operation here taking place as opposed to an exercise and he's also testing taiwan's defenses which is oh which has always been going on but not on this scale and that's for certain and and the other thing he's sending a clear message to the to the fact that so many of taiwan's allies particularly the united states has been speaking out and making certain that the world understands they're going to stand by taiwan so that's a message too that china is not giving up that there is determination to resolve this uh occupation in terms of taiwan becoming a part of mainland china i i may get the words wrong but i remember during xi jinping's speech during the 100 year anniversary of the ccp he said something like you know reunification will happen with taiwan and anyone who gets in the middle of it will see their heads smashed yeah i totally agree with that i have a tendency and we all should i know you don't agree with what he said but yeah but what he says usually is what he does and that has been a pattern now for 10 years that we've been exposed to president xi's leadership so when he says that this is going to be resolved and not be passed to the next generation you have to take that seriously i'm not suggesting there's an imminent attack coming uh to seize taiwan with the olympics next year and the national party congress that they have every five years but it may be that the window of opportunity for president xi to do this he sees is getting closer because he's got economic headwinds in front of him and he also knows full well that the united states and our allies are up gunning their military capability they know that the united states capability has eroded and it's going to take a number of years for us to get back to where we have the effective deterrence we used to have and certainly president xi is very much aware of that and this gives him a window of opportunity to take advantage of these situations before he has serious economic problems and before the united states is able to upgrade their military capability here's the quote general china's president xi jinping warning that foreign powers will get their heads bashed if they attempt to bully or influence the country so you know he's he said this during the 100th anniversary celebration several months ago but what's to stop him he knows that he just got away with going into hong kong and taking hong kong 25 years too soon right i mean i know that the trump administration and then the biden administration has uh have talked about allies the quad if you will to to strengthen an alliance uh to counter or certainly confine uh china but there's really been no teeth to that has there i mean why wouldn't he do whatever he wants in taiwan knowing that he just got away with what he did in hong kong and we didn't hear a peep from any of the free world yeah well certainly there's a lot of logic to that i mean first of all that language that rich bellicose language that he uses that's really designed for his domestic audience to make certain that they understand that china stands alone as a powerful country and no one can resist it so that's that kind of language is is meant for their consumption the the second thing i think that the major calculus for president xi has to deal with the united states i mean he does if he's going to take taiwan he doesn't want to take taiwan and have a full-out war as a result of it if that happened all of his strategic objectives that he's trying to to achieve would be gone but what he wants to do is be able to occupy taiwan with no resistance from the united states and our allies that that is what is on his mind so the calculus will always be in my judgment where is the united states on this now secretary blinken has come out in as late as april and said that we would defend taiwan the pentagon yesterday said our support of taiwan is rock solid so we're sending messages to him and this is a very important calculus i really believe it really comes down to president xi's interpretation of president biden does biden really have the resolve and the stick-to-itiveness and the toughness to support taiwan as an ally given the fact he walked away from a 20-year ally that we were fighting side by side with and afghanistan over the protection of the american people i may add so that is a calculus that he and his leaders are certainly paying a lot of attention to i mean look with all due respect general joe biden also told us that you know 18 states that changed their laws were jim crow laws he also told us you know that uh that mandates for vaccines were were legal uh and and he also told us that you know they were not sending they were sending uh migrants back so he also told us he would unify us so i'm i'm keeping what he says to with a grain of salt to be honest with you i want to talk to about afghanistan before you go general because china is waiting in the wings we know that but the taliban now we understand is not paying any of their electric bills they're leaving kabul to face a possible blackout as winter sets in some are warning of an incoming humanitarian disaster there as well your reaction general yeah well this is absolutely true afghanistan is a economic basket case to be sure with a growing humanitarian crisis i believe they're heading towards a failed state and ultimately a a civil war in the country because the the pressure that's going to be on the people be so significant that their tribal leaders and warlords will have to do something to adjust the situation the suffering of the people is going to be immense yeah 70 of their electricity comes from the so-called stands area to to the north and they're not paying their bills to those countries so eventually they're likely going to shut down the grid the banking system has failed people cannot get money out of atm machines or out of the bank the hospital systems health care are failing there's thousands of hospitals and clinics that are closed because all of that money came internationally from donors to keep those hospitals sustained and that's not happening inflation is spiraling out of control this is this is going to be a significant problem listen the taliban haven't done anything to get international support they said they were going to have an inclusive government they have not they said women are going to participate they they are not so not one single country is recognized in maria and they're not getting any international funding the united states is holding nine billion dollars of uh afghan money and it's because a terrorist organization is now running a country and that's the reality that we're facing here they pulled off a coup we saw in the streets the taliban whipping women no comment about the whipping of women in the streets of afghanistan from this administration instead they lie about the border agents general jack keane it's always a pleasure sir thank you

Channel: Fox Business

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Keywords: Business, FBN, Fox Business, Fox Business Network, News, asia, china, china air incursion, china aircraft taiwan, china flying over taiwan, china planes over taiwan, china sends warplanes to taiwan, china taiwan, china warplanes taiwan, jack keane, jack keane fox business, maria bartiromo, mornings with maria, taiwan, taiwan air defense zone, taiwan china, taiwan china war, taiwan prepares for war

Id: ll_xU2AkmvU

Length: 9min 23sec (563 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 05 2021