Implications for China from the War in Ukraine: Comparison of the Western and Taiwanese Views

In: Obrana a strategie: Defence & strategy, Volume 23, Issue 2, p. 023-038

Abstract

The Russian decision to conduct a full-scale invasion of Ukraine changed our world forever. European states are actively considering an increase in defense expenditures and trying to learn from ongoing armed conflict. On the other hand, Europeans are not the only ones learning from this war. The most dangerous geopolitical rival of the US, China, is watching this conflict closely as well and trying to learn as much as possible for its Taiwan campaign not only in the military domain, but also in diplomatic, information, and economic domains. This paper discusses possible implications for China in these domains. The authors pay special attention to the military domain divided into two subdomains, air and naval. First, a review of the literature of the Western view is conducted. Then data from semi-structured interviews with Taiwanese experts are used to compare those two views and identify possible implications for China and especially the People 's Liberation Army on the Taiwan campaign. Those two views are overall similar with minor differences.