China’s plans to annex Taiwan moving ‘much faster’ under Xi

China’s government is pursuing its plans to annex Taiwan on a “much faster timeline” under President Xi Jinping, the US secretary of state has said, reiterating warnings of global economic disruption if Taiwan was taken over.

The comments by Antony Blinken come as China’s ruling Communist party (CCP) meets for its twice-a-decade congress, the most important meeting of its political cycle. In a major speech opening the conclaves on Sunday, Mr Xi made clear that his plans for Taiwan remain core to his plans of China’s “rejuvenation”.

In conversation with former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice at Stanford University on Monday, Mr Blinken said peace and stability between China and Taiwan had been successfully maintained for decades, but Beijing had changed its approach.

“Instead of sticking with the status quo that was established in a positive way, [Beijing has made] a fundamental decision that the status quo is no longer acceptable, and Beijing is determined to pursue reunification on a much faster timeline,” <r Blinken said.

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“If peaceful means didn’t work then would employ coercive means, and possibly if coercive means don’t work then maybe forceful means to achieve its objective. That is what is profoundly disrupting the status quo and creating tremendous tensions.”

In recent years the CCP and its military, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), have intensified acts of intimidation and harassment towards Taiwan, including near daily sorties into its air defence identification zone and other grey zone actions.

In purported response to a visit by US speaker Nancy Pelosi, the PLA staged major military drills around Taiwan’s main island in August, and have since significantly increase of military crossings over the median line.

While Beijing has made clear it intends to take Taiwan, the timeline for such a scenario varies greatly. Senior US and Taiwanese military figures have warned the PLA will have the capability within a few years, while analysts point to <r Xi’s goal of national rejuvenation by 2049 — the centenary of the People’s Republic of China — as a potential deadline.

The question on Taiwan was put to Mr Blinken in the final minutes of an hour-long conversation. He warned that destabilisation of the Taiwan Strait was of “profound concern to countries around the world”.

Speaking to reporters after the event, Mr Blinken pointed to a global crisis beyond China, saying the Ukraine war had brought the “post Cold War-era to an end”, and technology is what would come to define competition between world powers.

“We are at an inflection point,” he said. “Technology will in many ways retool our economies. It will reform our militaries. It will reshape the lives of people across the planet. And so it’s profoundly a source of national strength.” — Guardian