If Trump is reelected in 2024, his blind faith in China's President Xi Jinping could be dangerous, a political analyst says
- A political analyst said he thinks Trump's belief in China's president could be dangerous.
- The US is watching to make sure China doesn't invade Taiwan as Russia has done to Ukraine.
Former President Trump's willingness to believe Chinese President Xi Jinping's promise to not invade Taiwan during his time in office could be dangerous if Trump were to be reelected, according to political analyst Josh Rogin.
As Russian President Vladimir Putin continues the country's military assault on Ukraine, which was once a part of Russia, the US has turned its attention to China, positing if the new war in Europe will prompt Chinese President Xi Jinping to attempt to take over Taiwan, which once belonged to China.
"Promises of peaceful intentions from dictators are at best worthless; at worst, they're dangerous lies designed to lull us into complacency, as Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine has underscored," Rogin wrote in a column for The Washington Post on Wednesday.
Chinese aircraft have frequently visited Taiwan's air-defense identification zone since early February.
Since the day that Putin implemented a "full-scale invasion" on Ukraine, China flew nine aircraft into Taiwan's airspace. It has made the flyover repeatedly since then, causing speculation that it is exploring its defenses, Insider previously reported.
"I haven't seen anything so far, but that doesn't mean they haven't talked about it internally and it doesn't mean that they won't try something," Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, head of US Pacific Air Forces, said at a press conference on March 3.
He also said that he was "watching them like a hawk."
Trump has floated the possibility of running for reelection in 2024 following his 2020 defeat to sitting President Joe Biden. The former Republican president said he had a "great" relationship with Xi prior to the pandemic — to the point where Trump believed and spread Xi's falsehoods about COVID-19.
"I had a relationship that was a very good one with Xi," Trump said in an interview with Rogin. "They never would have attacked Taiwan if I were president. I had absolute assurances, which I believed in."
According to Rogin, however, Xi has a poor track record of keeping promises he has made to US presidents.
Trump said last week he believed that China would invade Taiwan soon "because they're seeing how stupid the United States is run."
"They're seeing that our leaders are incompetent. And of course, they're going to do it. This is their time," he added. "They did nothing on Ukraine. They do nothing."