US, Australia and Japan call for China to cease military exercises around Taiwan; Beijing’s suspension of climate talks with US ‘punishes the world’, says John Kerry
How worried should we be about military conflict?
In response to Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, Beijing on Friday cancelled efforts to keep communication channels open between Chinese and US military commanders.
It’s feared that this raises the risk of an accidental escalation in tensions. Reuters has published some analysis on this:
Christopher Twomey, a security scholar at the US Naval Postgraduate School in California, told Reuters the severing of the communication links was worrying, coming at what he believed was the beginning of a new Taiwan crisis.
“That is precisely the time you would want to have more opportunities to talk to the other side … Losing those channels greatly reduces the ability of the two sides to de-conflict military forces as various exercises and operations continue.”