{"id":86613,"date":"2021-10-29T17:02:51","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T17:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/10\/29\/china-could-invade-taiwan-soon-says-former-australian-pm-abbott\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:02:12","slug":"china-could-invade-taiwan-soon-says-former-australian-pm-abbott","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/flashpoints\/2021\/10\/29\/china-could-invade-taiwan-soon-says-former-australian-pm-abbott\/","title":{"rendered":"China could invade Taiwan \u2018soon,\u2019 says former Australian PM Abbott"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2015 A former Australian prime minister said Friday he thinks <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/2021\/04\/29\/china-says-us-increasing-military-activity-directed-at-it\/\" target=\"_blank\">China <\/a>could \u201csoon\u201d invade Taiwan or otherwise escalate the situation and that the West should now be planning its military and economic response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think we need to be prepared to think the unthinkable,\u201d former Prime Minister Tony Abbott said at a Wilson Center event here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think it\u2019s highly possible that at some point in time, perhaps quite soon, China might up the ante, either with a blockade of the so-called rebel province \u2015 to teach the Taiwanese that they &#8230; need to make some kind of an accommodation with Beijing \u2015 or perhaps even a full-scale invasion,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Abbott earlier this month made geopolitical waves when he accused China of being a bully and expressed enthusiastic support for Taiwan while visiting the democratically ruled island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/flashpoints\/2021\/09\/23\/china-sends-19-fighter-jets-towards-taiwan-in-show-of-force\/\" target=\"_blank\">stepped up military harassment<\/a> of the island by flying fighter jets toward Taiwan \u2015 a trend Abbott said he expects to \u201cget more intense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Abbott sees Chinese leader Xi Jinping as emboldened by the West\u2019s mild reaction to China\u2019s takeover of Hong Kong. Unlike Hong Kong, Taiwan would offer military resistance, but it would still need outside backing, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn the absence of support from others, the Taiwanese might regard it as an unequal and ultimately hopeless struggle. And that\u2019s why I think it\u2019s important for Taiwan\u2019s fellow democracies to provide all the solidarity that we can,\u201d Abbott said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2021\/10\/28\/us-troops-on-taiwan-confirms-island-nations-president-confident-america-would-defend-it\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/TaiwanPrez.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">US troops on Taiwan, confirms island nation\u2019s president, confident America would defend it<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Tsai didn\u2019t tell CNN exactly how many US military personnel are on the island at present but said it was \u201cnot as many as people thought.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">U.S. President Joe Biden set off alarm bells in Beijing early this month by saying the U.S. has a firm commitment to help Taiwan defend itself in the event of a Chinese attack. Though the White House later played down the remarks, Abbott said he was \u201cencouraged\u201d by Biden\u2019s comments and that there\u2019s more broadly been a \u201crhetorical escalation\u201d from the West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Abbott\u2019s appearance came weeks after the unveiling of a U.S.-British deal to supply nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, which supplanted a prior French deal to supply Australia with its own submarines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Friday, Abbott reiterated his calls for Australia to take over one or more retiring U.S. Los Angeles-class or U.K. Trafalgar-class submarines soon because the new nuclear-powered subs won\u2019t arrive for years. The nuclear-powered submarines he\u2019s proposing for the interim would augment the Collins-class submarines in Australia\u2019s inventory, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe need better, bigger, faster more wide-ranging submarines not in two decades time but now,\u201d he said, adding that \u201cthe challenges are pressing, the peril is not far off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both the U.K. and France have dispatched carrier groups to the region, and the Royal Navy\u2019s Astute submarine was on a port call to Perth on Friday. Abbott said he hopes the U.K. will send more naval assets and use Singapore\u2019s facilities, as the U.S. Navy does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think it\u2019s very important for Britain and France, which have long had a Pacific presence, to increase that Pacific presence, given that east Asia is probably now the most strategically important part of the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Abbott also called for enhanced <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=site%3Adefensenews.com+japan+intelligence&#038;sxsrf=AOaemvJNQ2cw8TUywOEeCIZUSYRYhFmcbg%3A1635523383755&#038;ei=Nxt8YcfALcyUwbkP796akAM&#038;oq=site%3Adefensenews.com+japan+intelligence&#038;gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAM6BwgAEEcQsANKBAhBGABQhhNY5C9gjjFoAXACeACAATeIAecGkgECMjCYAQCgAQHIAQjAAQE&#038;sclient=gws-wiz&#038;ved=0ahUKEwiHuL2y_-_zAhVMSjABHW-vBjIQ4dUDCA4&#038;uact=5\" target=\"_blank\">intelligence sharing with Japan<\/a>, saying it could be a \u201cpowerful addition\u201d to the Five Eyes intelligence arrangement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">U.S. military officials have called China the \u201cpacing challenge.\u201d On Thursday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2021\/10\/28\/risk-aversion-and-secrecy-are-costing-us-its-military-advantage-no-2-general-says\/\" target=\"_blank\">Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. John Hyten<\/a> said the rate at which China\u2019s military is developing capabilities is \u201cstunning,\u201d while U.S. development suffers from \u201cbrutal\u201d bureaucracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In spite of a Biden administration defense budget that prioritizes technology development, Abbott said \u201cthe gap is likely to get wider, not smaller in the years to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIs the U.S. increasing its capabilities at the same rate as China is? I think the short answer is no,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A former Australian prime minister said Friday he thinks China could \u201csoon\u201d invade Taiwan or otherwise escalate and that the West should now be planning its military and economic response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":114478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[100,8,12,25],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3380],"class_list":["post-86613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-flashpoints","category-news","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"V5DS5SGLPRBTPJUHQXEW7QY7VA","arc_canonical_url":"\/global\/asia-pacific\/2021\/10\/29\/china-could-invade-taiwan-soon-says-former-australian-pm-abbott\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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Times","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/flashpoints\/2021\/10\/29\/china-could-invade-taiwan-soon-says-former-australian-pm-abbott\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/flashpoints\/2021\/10\/29\/china-could-invade-taiwan-soon-says-former-australian-pm-abbott\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP21280153049675.jpg.jpg","datePublished":"2021-10-29T17:02:51+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-08T00:02:12+00:00","description":"A former Australian prime minister said Friday he thinks China could \u201csoon\u201d invade Taiwan or otherwise escalate and that the West should now be planning its military and economic 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