A Chinese attack on Taiwan is the greatest peril to the global system since the 1930s, Atlantic Council CEO Frederick Kempe told the US-based cable news channel CNBC on Thursday.
The US is facing the fourth inflection point in its history that could result in an outcome similar to World War II should leaders mishandle the moment, he said at the channel’s virtual Evolve Global Summit, adding that China is the biggest risk factor.
The first three inflection points in US history were the two world wars and the Cold War, he added.
Photo: Screen grab from CNBC’s YouTube channel
When asked about US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson’s attempt to separately fund aid packages to Israel and Ukraine while tying the latter to domestic issues, Kempe said the US should keep the latter as its top priority.
China might see a wavering in US support of Ukraine as an opportunity to invade Taiwan, he said.
Autocratic regimes around the world are collaborating more than ever before, and although they are not plotting together against the US, those regimes share a desire to not have the US “run the global system any longer,” he said.
Meanwhile, the US and its allies are not sufficiently united to effectively counter collaboration between China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, Kempe said.
When asked about JPMorgan Chase & Co chief executive Jamie Dimon’s remark that the world might be “facing its most dangerous time in decades,” Kempe responded in the affirmative, saying: “Geopolitics is coming into boardrooms in a way it has not in my lifetime.”
The shift has been building over the past five years with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, a chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan, Russian President Putin’s subsequent invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas conflict, Kempe said.
Corporate executives are right in fearing global instability worsening, he said, adding that companies should reduce supply chain dependency on China and bolster their resilience.
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