U.S. Could Do More Against China Than Against Russia, Taiwan Official Says

Taiwan's spy chief believes the U.S. has reason to put up a stronger response to a Chinese invasion, in contrast to Washington's indirect military assistance to Ukraine. Chen Ming-tong, who heads Taipei's National Security Bureau, told lawmakers on Monday that Beijing would've been surprised by the extent of the West's far-reaching economic sanctions against Russia, and as a result will be looking for ways to strengthen the Chinese yuan and reduce its dependency on the dollar.

Asked about any early lessons that China may have drawn from the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, the island's most senior intelligence official pointed to the American response. "I think [China] will be more cautious because the U.S. hasn't intervened militarily in Ukraine. There are some fears it could trigger World War III, but it has intervened in every other way," said Chen.

U.S. military assets and those of NATO allies run regular reconnaissance missions on Ukraine's western border in order to survey the battlefield, according to open-source data, and presumably provide Kyiv with real-time intelligence about Russian troop movements. This month, the U.S. said it had given Ukraine a total of $2 billion in security assistance since last year, including $1 billion in a single week in March.

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