קליאו פסקל: עלינו להתכונן לפלישה של סין לטייוואן

Could China be moving toward an invasion of Taiwan? As tensions rise in the Taiwan Strait, one expert explains why the West needs to prepare for exactly that possibility. To dive deeper, we spoke with Cleo Pascal, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. President Trump said recently that China's Xi Jinping promised him that China would not invade Taiwan while Trump was president. Now, given communist Chinese leaders' history of not saying publicly what they actually mean, how should we read this? Because so far, the Chinese side hasn't refuted this. Is this an actual guarantee, or is this something that led up to World War II? Well, they also said they wouldn't miss the Scarborough Shoal or any of the stuff they're trying to see. So take it for what you will. And I think that President Trump also is taking it with not just a grain, but maybe an entire ocean full of salt. We do see on Taiwan's side, however, that they are saying Taiwan has to rely on itself for its own defense. It's trying to buy about 50,000 more in terms of drones and arms from the U.S., actually. But I know in terms of history, right, recent history in terms of the Ukraine war, it was when Ukraine said they wanted to defend themselves that other countries started coming in. So perhaps it's laying that groundwork. But lots to see. With all the areas covered today, though, any final thoughts you'd like to share? This is a time for understanding who has the same values you have, and who wants to see a world that is similar to your ultimate goal. Before the U.S. entered World War II, the U.S. president and the prime minister of the U.K. got together and wrote the Atlantic Charter, which was the vision and included getting rid of Nazi tyranny, for example. And I think it's time that allies really kind of make it explicit what they're aiming for. If we have to go to war, if China does provoke a war, what are we fighting for? And where are we trying to head? And I think that will make it much more clear among allies who actually your allies are, who's willing to fight for the same things you're fighting for, so that these disagreements over things that might seem transitory, but if you don't handle them properly, can actually create with your core allies and friends, gets mediated as quickly as possible.