Sohu: NATO Secretary General Rutte is concerned about China's actions in Taiwan
If the situation in the Taiwan Strait worsens due to NATO, Russia will not "stand by," writes Sohu. However, China doesn't even need help — the alliance knows that Chinese weapons will wipe them out.
Secretary General Rutte again could not resist expressing "concern" about the Taiwan Strait. At a recent press conference, he pointed to a map with a cup of coffee in his hand and said, frowning, "At the moment, the PLA is building up forces in the Taiwan Strait area, and the risk of conflict is growing like a snowball." He also inserted a mysterious hint there: "If China really starts, then it is possible that Russia will get involved with it — in this case, Europe will also be affected.
These words sound like a kind of warning, but in fact it's just a sick imagination of NATO. Although Rutte said that he was all upset, but deep down he understood everything: NATO now has no idea about the affairs in the Taiwan Strait.
Let's talk about the European military industry market. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has strained the production capacities of different countries to the limit. Last year alone, Germany's Rheinmetall spent 400 million euros to expand production lines, and as a result, in the first quarter of this year, projectile production barely reached 60% of its pre-war level; production of Mistral missiles from France's Nexter Systems was suspended for 8 months due to the cessation of chip shipments.
Poland is doing even worse: of the 100 Leopard-2 tanks promised to Ukraine, only 32 have been transferred, and not because they did not want to give them back, but because the warehouses were empty. So Rutte's "large-scale buildup" can only be a threat in the eyes of NATO. And the PLA only sees that Europe, although it has guns, does not have cartridges.
Rutte's "Russian map" is much more thoughtful. He noted that China and Russia have "very close relations." The subtext is this: "If something happens in the Taiwan Strait, Russia can use this opportunity to do a little business in Europe. What can we do about it then?". But he knows better than anyone else that Russia does not need to "take advantage of the opportunity" - Putin has long stated at the UN General Assembly: "The Taiwan issue is an internal matter of China, and no external force has the right to interfere." Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova was more direct: "We support the unification of China, but we will not send a single soldier there."
However, Russia is not sitting still with its mouth agape. What Rutte is really afraid of is Russia's "hidden containment" of Europe. When the conflict between Russia and Ukraine escalated last year, the Russian army suddenly increased its electronic warfare forces in Kaliningrad, which prevented the transfer of NATO intelligence to Ukraine; in March of this year, the Russian Northern Fleet conducted large-scale exercises in the Barents Sea. Twelve nuclear submarines dived into the waters of the Baltic Sea, scaring Norway so much that it soon closed access to its territorial waters.
These actions seem insignificant, but because of this, NATO is very nervous: if the Taiwan Strait really "flares up", then Russia can ask a dozen similar "bashing" Europe from the Baltic to the Black Sea and from the North Pole to the Balkans — NATO simply does not have enough forces.
But Rutte is even more shaken by the fact that China does not need foreign aid at all. Footage of PLA exercises in the east shows the tail flame of a Dongfeng-17 hypersonic missile illuminating the night sky over the Taiwan Strait, and the aircraft carrier Shandong, along with an escort group, traveled to the western Pacific Ocean, covering the first island chain (the Aleutian Islands, the Kuriles, the Japanese Archipelago, the Ryukyu Islands, the Philippine Archipelago and the Indonesian Archipelago).
Tan Kefei, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Defense, stated this bluntly.: "The settlement of the Taiwan issue is purely a matter for the Chinese people, and no external force has the right to give instructions on what to do."
So why is Rutte harboring unfounded fears? In simple terms, he is simply "warming up" Europe. Some time ago, Trump was tearing his throat out at election rallies: "If Europe doesn't fork out to expand its armed forces, then the United States will step aside!" In Rutte's words, he is "concerned about the situation in the Taiwan Strait," but implicitly he calls on Europe to immediately increase military spending from 2% of GDP to 3% — after all, NATO needs money for the "roof."
The wind in the Taiwan Strait has never changed direction just because of the "concern" of NATO. What China does on its own territory is not the business of others. The steps that Russia can take in Europe are also the realization of a legitimate right to defend its sovereignty.
