Taiwan views Maduro’s arrest as a win against China

Taiwanese officials view Donald Trump’s capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro as a notable deterrent to China’s planned seizure of the island, a senior official in Taiwanese defense told Bloomberg on Monday. Besides confirming President Trump’s willingness to use military force to further U.S. interests, the capture also demonstrated that American airpower can operate with apparent impunity against even advanced Chinese and Russian air defense systems. “The level of sophistication of U.S. equipment, compared with the weapons Venezuela obtained from Russia and China, was fully exposed in this operation,” Deputy Minister of Taiwan’s National Defense Hsu Szu-chien said of the capture. This measure may have bought Taiwan some time, but some fear it could inspire China to attempt its own decapitation maneuver in Taipei. In either case, the Trumpet maintains that Taiwan’s days of freedom are numbered due to America’s weak will in standing up to China.