WARSAW, Poland—China is testing weapons in Ukraine, which is just one of the reasons China wants the war between Russia and Ukraine to continue, according to Szu-chien Hsu, senior adviser to the president at the National Security Council of Taiwan.
The world is paying attention to Russia and Ukraine, but not China and Taiwan, Hsu said to a crowded room at the Warsaw Security Forum. “That’s the reason why I’m here,” he added with a laugh. The Chinese Communist Party claims Taiwan is a part of China, but Taiwan views itself as a separate, democratic nation.
China largely has three central motivations for the war between Russia and Ukraine to continue, Hsu said.
“First of all, if Russia is defeated, China will be left alone to be dealt with by the whole Western camp,” he told the crowd. “Second, when China and Russia are working together, they intimidate the whole world. Third, if Russia is defeated, China will have to handle Taiwan and whole world will pay attention.”
While Hsu argues China is motivated to keep the war going, Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Radoslaw Sikorski says he believes “China is the only country that will actually force a ceasefire in this war.” Asked where this leaves the effort to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, retired U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus told The Daily Signal he would not look to Beijing to end the war.
Defeating Russia will require two actions, Petraeus said, adding that he is already seeing a positive movement toward his recommended steps.
First, Ukraine’s friends and allies must provide more support to prevent Russia from taking more territory and “to also help them improve their effectiveness against missile and drone attacks at night,” said Petraeus, who also served as CIA director for just over a year from 2011-2012.
In order to achieve this, Petraeus says the European Union should convert the roughly $250 billion of Russian reserves sitting in European banks to bonds, “essentially money to give to Ukraine of that amount.”
Under such a “clever scheme,” which Petraeus said the president of the European Commission is considering, Ukraine would not be required to pay the money back until Russia provides reparations to Ukraine.
Ukraine receiving “that amount of money would enable them to double their production of drones from, say, $3.5 to $4 million a year, literally, to as much as $7 to $8 million each year, and that will do an enormous amount on the front lines,” Petraeus said.
The second action required to force Russia into ending the war is to “crush the Russian war economy and … punish those who are enabling it,” Petraeus continued.
In alignment with President Donald Trump, Petraeus says stopping the foreign purchase of Russian oil and gas would greatly harm Russia’s economy.
“These two actions, if pursued together, I think would be the only ones that would convince [Russian President] Vladimir Putin that this war actually cannot continue, because he can’t make any progress on the ground, and he can’t make progress through the air,” Petraeus said.
Trump has increasingly voiced support for Ukraine in recent months, representing a significant change in tone toward Ukraine since Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s tumultuous meeting with Trump in February, in which Trump told Zelenskyy he was “gambling with World War Three.”
Last week, after meeting with Zelenskyy at the United Nations in New York, Trump wrote on Truth Social:
“After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation and, after seeing the Economic trouble it is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form.”
Now, cautious optimism would likely be the most accurate way to describe Zelenskyy’s hope of continued U.S. support.
“Do you have 100% confidence that Donald Trump has your back?” Zelenskyy was asked after delivering live remote remarks at the Warsaw Security Forum.
The Ukrainian president laughed before saying that Trump’s attitude toward the war between Russia and Ukraine “now is just.”
“I cannot say what tomorrow will bring, because the world is changing much faster than somebody could have forecast,” Zelenskyy said. “So, as of today, the stance of President Trump is, in my view, it is truly balanced, and it supports Ukraine’s stance.”
Virginia Allen is a senior news producer for The Daily Signal and host of “The Daily Signal Podcast” and “Problematic Women.” Send an email to Virginia.
Reprinted with permission from The Daily Signal by Virginia Allen.
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
EU should follow the suggestions of Petraeus because if they don’t then Russia will be emboldened to get each and everyone of them to be next in his ambition. With the EU and USA together, I don’t think Putin is dumb enough to fight them.
Deadly twins, treacherous also for I am sure each is thinking how can he screw the other up.
The true lesson for us is to not mess about.
What did we think would happen when we financed a coup in the Ukraine and got the Ukraine to try to throw Russia out of its naval base in the crimea? Russia invaded the crimea and took its base.
What did we think would happen when we flooded the Ukraine with 4billion in arms, started talking about ballistic missiles in the Ukraine and putting in missile defense shields there, when the american trained and armed avoz brigade started committing atrocities in the donbas, when we put secret CIA bases on the border of Russia? Russia attacked.
What did we think would happen when we are providing the weapons and targeting data now to the Ukraine that they use to attack Russians? Russia is getting ready to attack the aid routes into the Ukraine and those providing the targeting data. The drones recently around Europe were warnings
Talk about fafo. We messed about and 120 billion later we are finding out.
If someone did this stuff in our neighbor to us – no scratch that … If someone did this in our hemisphere … To America we would go to war too. Why so shocked Russia would fight?
Maybe the lesson for the future is to not mess about playing games. We’ve acted like the aggrieved party but we instigated the entire thing.
The US and European Union have all the tools at hand to not only stop Russia and China but push back in a way that could devastated each country. The idea is to make them believe such actions are possible, however, the masses would cry out like the bemocraps. Get the EU to stop purchasing oil and gas from Russia, this will crumble the Russian economy, next, curtail all exports and imports from China and their economy will collapse. Yes this would effect the US for a time being but isn’t that better than wasting lives trying to stop expansionist?
No way for Ukraine to get back lost land. Hold the line is the best it can do.
i don’t trust our govt to tell the truth about anything. there is more hanky-panky to this war than you would believe. Lots of the cash given to Ukraine ended up int the USs. Much of it in a certain address in Delaware….
OH……..and Trump was being sarcastic with the “beat Russia back to pre 2001 borders” line by the way. Even the orange a** clown isn’t that stupid.
The United States is selling hundreds of billions of dollars in military hardware to impoverished western European globalist governments to gift to the NAZI regime in Ukraine……but its somehow China benefiting from the prolonging of the conflict the US started with our arranged and funded coup in Ukraine in 2014?
WEIRD, the BS propaganda AMAC shoves down our throats.
I was promised an end to this war, not funding Zelensky.
Let Ukraine fall or win on it’s and the EU’s own efforts. We should stay out of it so we are free to deal with China if and when we need to do so!