China’s Coast Guard Is Its Secret Weapon Against Taiwan
Beijing is more likely to use its lower-profile fleet than military options to exert control.
Economic warfare.
Source: Xinhua News Agency/Getty Images
What is the easiest way for China to take over Taiwan, confound its defenses and confuse its allies? Rather than an invasion — a costly and dangerous exercise that would trigger a military response from the US — the most likely option right now is what experts are calling a quarantine, which would take control of the island’s ports and devastate its economy. The new government in Taipei, and its international partners from Washington to Tokyo, need to wake up to this possibility and develop contingencies.
While a blockade would be enforced by the People’s Liberation Army, and viewed by the global community as a military operation, a lower -profile “quarantine” would involve China’s coast guard and, in theory, would not prompt the kind of response that the US and its allies might take in an outright invasion. That’s a possibility that President Joe Biden has openly discussed before, and that US army officials are wargaming out.