China uses Taiwan to distract from struggles at home 

The Chinese Communist Party leader, Xi Jinping, tries to play well at home, taking care of nationalist sentiments as he intends to keep his seat for another five-year term or even longer.

The Chinese Communist Party leader spent a decade gaining power, imprisoning political opponents and dissidents. Therefore, his orders as chairman of the Central Military Commission against Taiwan sending 150 warplanes prove that he is strengthening his seat.

The Chinese leader has problems inside the country, so he tries to use distraction. The economy seems squeezed by demographics concerns and the unexpected changes and challenges of the current pandemic.

Taiwan does not seem to threaten anyone, but China sees it adversely. 

Beijing considers invading Taiwan (the island of 23 million people) by force as a significant decision. This plan could become a proxy for the battle between the West and China. However, it remains unclear if this case can interest other nations to step in. It is also unclear if the Chinese leader would repeat what Putin did in Ukraine several years ago.

Possibly Taiwan’s status in the world would play an important role. Therefore the west might not see an interest in this case.

Most nations approach Taiwan as an independent state. Besides that, the island isn’t a member of the UN and has a few established diplomatic ties.

However, China`s move on Taiwan might be hard to characterize as illegal under international law as its borders are doubtful in the political field – unlike the borders of Ukraine.

For a couple of decades, the Communist Party has risked its nation of 1.4 billion people to give up on individual freedoms in exchange for rising common prosperity.

While china’s economy essentially keeps moving forward, Xi’s tasks are to push on to ensure growth stability.