A breakout session held on the last day of the East-West Center International Media Conference featured three journalists and a moderator to discuss the challenges of covering China from the perspective of international media.
Journalists Ann Hsieh, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of The Storm Media from Taiwan, Tom Grundy, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Hong Kong Free Press, and Matthias Kamp, China Correspondent of Neue Zürcher Zeitun, spoke about the challenges of covering China as well as the country's policies and behavior in disputed territories.
During the panel, a question was asked on China’s approach to international sea disputes and if there is a likelihood of war, with Mathias and moderator Mike Chinoy, a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the University of Southern California US-China Institute in Taiwan, giving their opinion on the matter.
Journalists Ann Hsieh, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of The Storm Media from Taiwan, Tom Grundy, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Hong Kong Free Press, and Matthias Kamp, China Correspondent of Neue Zürcher Zeitun, spoke about the challenges of covering China as well as the country's policies and behavior in disputed territories.
During the panel, a question was asked on China’s approach to international sea disputes and if there is a likelihood of war, with Mathias and moderator Mike Chinoy, a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the University of Southern California US-China Institute in Taiwan, giving their opinion on the matter.
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00:00salami slicing incremental pushing and when they discover if there's not
00:06sufficient pushback they keep pushing and what I think they found in relation
00:11to the Philippines is that there hasn't been enough pushback there's been a
00:18conscious decision under Xi Jinping to adopt a more muscular and assertive kind
00:26of international behavior and we've seen it all over the world we've seen it in
00:33relation to the waters of the Philippines we've seen in relation to
00:37Taiwan we've seen it in relation to Australia we've seen it in relation to
00:42Canada we've seen it in relation to any number of the Sino-Indian border so it's
00:48part of a general notion that you know China's time has come and we've got the
00:54weight we can throw it around and I don't think they really care about the
01:00the international pushback and or the bad the bad PR look because internally
01:10the dynamic is show how tough you are show how strong you are I think that
01:14explains the thuggish behavior of some Chinese diplomats for example or so and
01:20in terms of a chance of a war I think China will push until somebody pushes
01:27back forcefully my own feeling is the greatest risk is not of a premeditated
01:32war but of an accidental clash or incident that becomes hard to control
01:38because passions are running so high in in Washington and attitudes are so
01:43hardened in Washington and Beijing and elsewhere yeah just two or three thoughts
01:49on that I think because you asked about the likelihood of a war and I would say
01:54that that a war over Taiwan maybe you can say something after that is for the
02:00next few years is very unlikely for several reasons I mean the one thing is
02:04the price they would pay or that she would pay is really very high and and he
02:10knows this and from what I observe she is not a Putin second thing is second
02:17thing is that the PLA the People's Liberation Army is apparently not in a
02:22very good condition I mean there's constant reports about
02:25worsening corruption and and some some people even assessing they say we're not
02:31so sure how how function how if this army can still function properly and and
02:37win over Taiwan the second thing is when and there I agree with Mike the risk is
02:42an accident or something and I think this risk of an accident is more likely
02:47in the South China Sea especially the Philippines I mean we've seen that last
02:51week and we're more or less seeing it regularly with water cannons and so on
02:56and so the risk that something will will happen there is more likely than
03:01something will happen about Taiwan I think.