The world should prepare for possible war in the Taiwan Strait, should China attack Taiwan, a former Reserve Bank of India governor said in a podcast over the weekend.
“I do think we should be prepared for the possibility that China may act on Taiwan and the Western world will push back. That is a possibility,” Raghuram Rajan, a professor of finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, said in an interview on the podcast Figuring Out With Raj Shamani, released on Saturday.
Although Rajan said he hoped a war was not imminent, he urged caution on China.
Photo: Bloomberg
The Chinese he engages with say their country would not start a war, “but who knows?” he said.
“The problem with more authoritarian countries is — it’s all in the mind of the leader,” which is unpredictable, he said.
The world order is changing with the rise of China and India, and possibly Brazil, Rajan said, adding that China, the US and the EU might be India’s biggest competitors in the new world order.
Other fast-growing nations of rising importance include Indonesia, Mexico and Nigeria, he said.
However, the UN is too weak to establish peace, so “a stronger organization for global peace” is needed, he said.
Regarding India’s development, he said the country should focus on “opening up and engaging with the world,” as well as creating a friendly image to avoid being seen as an “ugly superpower.”
China’s “wolf warrior” behavior, which aims to create fear in other countries, has provoked adverse reactions from nations, such as tariffs imposed on Chinese goods and international disputes, Rajan said.
China has become increasingly authoritarian, which stifles innovation and creativity, and, in turn, drags down its economic growth, he said.
India should avoid acting like China on the world stage or it would drive away investment, trade and talent, he said.
India should also use its soft power to present itself as “a microcosm of global civilization” that is diverse, open and inclusive, he said.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
A registered sex offender from the US who went missing after entering Taiwan has been found and would be deported in light of the risk he poses to the public, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday. The agency launched a search for Levi Forrest Wallace, 43, after it was informed by the American Institute of Taiwan (AIT) that he had entered Taiwan on Oct. 2 on a tourist visa. He was not on the US government’s wanted list. Wallace was sentenced to 90 days in jail with a two-year probation in 2001 after he was convicted of sexual delinquency of
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