00:00The world needs the commitment to the summit and that commitment remains what everybody is looking for what President Trump
00:07and President Xi have made a political commitment to with each other is is to stabilize this relationship over a
00:14period of time. I think the Korea deal was a very positive deal. I think the fact that the U
00:19.S. is hosting G20 and China's hosting APEC which means their ministers are running around in each other's big cities
00:25all year long and the two leaders will meet in these multilateral environments.
00:29is also very positive. So sooner or later I believe Trump will come here. I believe Xi will reciprocate and
00:36go to the U.S. and all of this sends signals throughout the bureaucracies on each side that will lead
00:43them to work together better than they would have otherwise.
00:45You've heard all the speculation that the PLA is watching this very closely. A decapitation strike in Venezuela. A decapitation
00:54strike in Tehran. Do you buy into that kind of speculation that they're looking at avenues to employ China that
01:03is towards Taiwan?
01:05I'm sure that there's a lot of watching going on. I'm a former diplomat and this is you know governments
01:11do this and they are probably learning their lessons assessing capabilities. And of course China China is very focused on
01:20Taiwan. It is obviously preparing for any kinds of contingencies it might face. Whether this really changes their approach I
01:29would say very unlikely.
01:30Does a diversion of resources military hardware and attention by Washington to the Middle East. Does that open the door
01:39for something to happen here with China and Taiwan.
01:42I would say absolutely not. I believe that China has a policy towards Taiwan that is very deliberate. They will
01:50do things on their terms when and how they want to. They're not going to be opportunistic about it. It
01:57is too risky.
01:57The other thing is I don't believe China is looking for an opportunity to intervene militarily to deal with the
02:03Taiwan crisis. I think for now they are still trying to work with non-military means and for some years
02:11to come it will probably look that way.
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