State media taunts Taiwan as US' Afghan retreat stokes Chinese nationalism
 
The chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan has presented Beijing with a propaganda boost, with Chinese state media capitalizing on the crisis to trumpet the supposed decline of America and taunt Taiwan with threats of invasion.
The jingoistic rhetoric coincided with air and naval drills launched Tuesday by the Chinese military, which sent fighter jets and warships near Taiwan in response to what it called the "repeated collusion in provocation" by Washington and Taipei.
In recent years, China's ruling Communist Party has sought to present the US as a fading global power. And now, the return of the Taliban to the streets of the Afghan capital is being touted by state media as the "death knell of US hegemony."
"The fall of Kabul marks the collapse of the international image and credibility of the US," a commentary from state news agency Xinhua said Monday.
"Following the blows of the global financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic, the decay of the American hegemony has become an undisputed reality. Its failure in Afghanistan is another turning point in that spiral fall," it added.
Meanwhile, the Global Times, a state-run nationalist tabloid, has repeatedly played up what it described as the "unreliability of US commitment to its allies," suggesting the self-governing island of Taiwan could face the same fate as Afghanistan in the event of conflict with China.
Taiwan and mainland China have been governed separately since the end of a civil war more than seven decades ago, in which the defeated Nationalists fled to Taipei. But the Chinese Communist Party views Taiwan — a democratic island of about 24 million people — as an inseparable part of its territory, despite having never controlled it.
"Once a war breaks out in the Taiwan Straits, the island's defense will collapse in hours and the US military won't come to help." the Global Times said in an editorial Monday.
Arthur Ding, an international relations professor at National Chengchi University in Taipei, called Beijing's propaganda messaging on Afghanistan "cheap psychological warfare," noting it was intended to convey the US' alleged unreliability, especially to Taiwan's more receptive opposition supporters who favor closer ties with Beijing.
For decades, an uneasy status quo governed cross-strait relations. But under President Xi Jinping, China has increased military activity around the island, in response to what it considers to be growing calls for formal independence.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, discussions have broken out across Taiwanese social media in recent days as to how the government in Taipei would respond in the event of a Chinese invasion, and whether the US would indeed come to the island's defense.
So much so that on Tuesday, Taiwan's premier publicly stressed the island would not collapse like Afghanistan if invaded. In a press conference, Premier Su Tseng-chang appeared to confront the Chinese threats directly, saying Taiwan's leaders are "not afraid of being killed or imprisoned" by "powerful countries that want to swallow up Taiwan using force."
Politicians in Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party also dismissed attempts to draw parallels between Taiwan and Afghanistan, saying such comparisons are inherently fraught.
"If we're going to make Afghan comparisons, Taiwan survived that moment 40+ years ago. US troops left Taiwan in 1979 after recognizing the PRC," Wen Lii, a local ruling party official, wrote on Twitter, referring to China by abbreviation of its official name, the People's Republic of China. "So no, Taiwan is not Afghanistan," he added.
Kolas Yotaka, a spokesperson for Taiwan's Presidential Office, said the "lazy comparisons...ignore the realities of both countries, and show little regard for the immense human suffering facing many in Afghanistan today."
Despite formally switching diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing, the US has remained a staunch ally of Taiwan, supplying the island with defensive weaponry under the terms of the decades-old Taiwan Relations Act, including a proposed $750 million arms sale announced earlier this month.
In April, US President Joe Biden dispatched an unofficial delegation to Taiwan in a show of support for the island, according to a senior administration official and a State Department spokesperson.
The State Department also announced in April that the agency had "issued new guidelines for US government interaction with Taiwan counterparts to encourage US government engagement with Taiwan that reflects our deepening unofficial relationship."
On Tuesday, China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) conducted "joint fire assault and other drills using actual troops" off the southwest and southeast of Taiwan, according to a statement from the PLA's Eastern Theater Command.
– Additional reporting by Brad Lendon  Nectar Gan is China Reporter for CNN International based in Hong Kong. She covers the changes taking place in China, and their impact on the world.  Steve George is Senior Editor for CNN International in Hong Kong. He oversees coverage from across the Asia-Pacific region, with a special focus on China.  Beijing in Kabul The Chinese national flag flies above the Chinese embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 17. Hua Chunying, a spokesperson with China's Foreign Ministry, said Monday the Chinese government is in contact with the Taliban, and it welcomes the Taliban's promises to "never allow any forces to use Afghan territory to do things that endanger China." Reining in Delta On July 20, Chinese authorities detected a cluster of Covid-19 cases in the eastern city of Nanjing – the beginning of a nationwide outbreak fueled by the highly infectious Delta variant.
At its peak, China was reporting more than 140 new symptomatic cases a day – which, though a tiny proportion of its 1.4 billion population, was still alarming after more than a year of single-digit daily cases.
But less than a month later, the outbreak seems to be under control. The country only reported six new locally transmitted cases on Tuesday, and six more on Wednesday.
It's a remarkably quick turnaround and stands in sharp contrast to many other countries still grappling with Delta. It's also a possible indicator that China's strict zero-Covid control measures may be working.
Authorities acted quickly once the outbreak became apparent, with numerous major cities launching mass testing campaigns and building pop-up testing labs. Yangzhou, one of the infection hotspots, has so far conducted six rounds of testing for all its 4.5 million residents.
Communities that reported infections were promptly locked down, with residents unable to leave except for emergencies. New travel and movement restrictions came into effect, as well as extra screening procedures and mandatory quarantines for anyone traveling between cities or provinces.
All the while, authorities ramped up the nationwide vaccination campaign. More than 1.8 billion doses have been administered so far, according to the National Health Commission (NHC).
Even as cases and public anxiety rose, authorities expressed confidence the outbreak would soon be tamed.
"As long as all localities strictly implement prevention and control measures, this round of the outbreak can be basically controlled within two to three incubation periods," an NHC official said at a news conference on August 5.
Less than 14 days later – one incubation period for the original Covid strain – such assurances appear, for the moment at least, to be proving true.  The Chinese government this week proposed sweeping new rules to further curb anti-competitive behavior among big internet firms, leading several of the tech companies to shed tens of billions of dollars in value.
The latest effort to clamp down on the sector came Tuesday from the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), which has spearheaded the government's antitrust campaign against Big Tech.
The rules would forbid business operators from faking statistics or information about their product orders, sales and user reviews to mislead customers. They would also be banned from fabricating consumer views to hurt the reputations of their rivals.
Other practices targeted include using data, algorithms or other means to redirect web traffic from their rivals or create obstacles that would prevent customers from installing or running rival services.
SAMR said the rules are intended to stamp out "unfair competition."
Chinese tech stocks — which have crashed during the escalating crackdown over the past nine months — fell further in Hong Kong on Tuesday following the news. Tencent tumbled about 4%, while Alibaba fell 4.8%. JD.com lost 5.2%, and Meituan shed 3.5%. They lost more than $50 billion in all.
SAMR, which was established in 2018, has dramatically stepped up antitrust scrutiny of the country's tech champions since late last year, when President Xi Jinping called for the reining in of the "disorderly expansion" of private capital.
The campaign is part of a broad crackdown by Beijing that has rocked Chinese business ranging from tech and financial services to private tutoring.
The government has cited a need to safeguard national security and protect the interests of its people. But the unprecedented crackdown on private enterprise has rattled global investors and triggered fears about the future of innovation and economic growth prospects in China. Around Asia
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