Mad for Pentagon to compare Taiwan with Ukraine

The Taipei 101 skyscraper commands the urban landscape in Taipei, Taiwan. [Photo/Xinhua]

This is an editorial from China Daily.

If the Pentagon really "uses new Taiwan arms transfer authority, similar to Ukraine" one day as the Defense News highlighted in the headline of its report, that would be a disaster for the US by dragging it into undeserved antagonism against China.

China has long and repeatedly emphasized that the Taiwan question is in essence different from the Ukraine crisis, as the former is the domestic affair of a sovereignty nation while the latter is between two countries. The one-China principle is also what regulates the US in its relationship with China, stressed at the beginning of almost every major joint statement between the two.

By comparing Taiwan with Ukraine, those favoring it in both the Pentagon and Capitol Hill compel their nation to face the unnecessary risk of offending a major partner across the Pacific in its core interests, a move that will surely incur for the US countermeasures from China.

The Defense News pointed out that the group still needs some US lawmakers "who control the purse strings to follow through with hard cash", which means they are pursuing self-interests under the false excuse of the US' national defense. In other words, whether the US will commit a fatal wrong largely depends on a few clear heads.

Which is rather dangerous because they are far outnumbered by those pursuing narrow self-interests at the cost of the US.