Wendy Sherman: China watches Russia-Ukraine conflict to measure Taiwan’s actions

Former Secretary of State Wendy Sherman warned on Sunday that Chinese leaders are using international responses to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine to assess its future treatment of Taiwan.

“China looks at the situation in Russia and Ukraine,” Sherman, who works in the administration of Clinton, Obama and Biden, told Chris Steelwalter of the News Agency.

The Trump administration warned China last month after the country conducted large-scale military exercises in waters and airspace near Taiwan.

China believes Taiwan is its territory and threatens to occupy independent islands through military forces, but the United States believes Taiwan is a strategic partner, with many American tech companies relying on semiconductors made there.

“If Russia could invade a sovereign state and occupy all or part of Ukraine, and no one really hindered it, then China would think it could take Taiwan and all the advanced semiconductors that were created there, and no one would blink,” Sherman told Stirewalt. “This is a danger for us.”

Despite the Trump administration’s demand for a peace treaty, the Russian-Ukrainian war has been going on for more than three years since Russia invaded its Eastern European neighbors. Russia also claims ownership of Ukraine’s independent territory.

The two sides proposed a prisoner exchange agreement in Turkey earlier this month and said the talks would continue to have a broader peace agreement, but Russia has again launched a drone and missile strike against Ukraine in a multi-day arrangement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Sunday to the United States, Europe and all those seeking peace to forcefully respond to the Russian attacks and put even more pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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