Chinese State Media Warn Taiwan: U.S. May Dump You Like Afghanistan

The 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, Nectar Gan and Steve George reported for CNN.

Photo Insert: The facade of the Xinhua News Agency headquarters

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.

The Global Times, a state-run nationalist tabloid, meanwhile, 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.

“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 bragged in an editorial Monday.

The last war fought by China in Vietnam saw Deng Xiaoping’s forces retreating, with entire regiments wiped out and tanks battalions destroyed as Ho Chi Minh’s forces engaged in guerrilla tactics and taught the Chinese not to withdraw in a disorderly fashion, Brad Lendon of CNN also reported.

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