, Columnist
Putin’s Struggles in Ukraine May Embolden Xi on Taiwan
Conventional wisdom holds that the Western response to Russia’s invasion will tame China’s aggression, but the opposite is just as likely.
Brothers in arms.
Photographer: Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images
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One of the biggest questions of the Ukraine war concerns tensions half a world away: What lessons will China draw from the Russian invasion?
Western observers hope that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s faltering invasion of Ukraine will convince China to go slow — that it will discourage President Xi Jinping from undertaking an invasion of Taiwan. Yet there’s a real possibility that it could actually induce Beijing to go fast — to use force more harshly and decisively in hopes of avoiding the type of quagmire into which Moscow has stumbled.