Russia has historically had hegemony over Ukraine. There is the language issue where Russian is spoken alongside of Ukrainian. The Soviet Union had Ukraine as part of it for a long time. Then there is President Vladimir Putin, who would like to restore Russia to it’s previous power position in the world.
He certainly has everyone’s attention and he is enjoying it!
Then there is China and Taiwan. China looks at Taiwan as being part of their country, and traditionally it has been. It was the 1949 civil war that ended with Nationalists withdrawing to Taiwan. It has been a thorn in the side of China ever since.
The political parallels between these two geographically distant situations is clear. How the United States and Western Europe react to Russia will send signals to China about what they can or cannot get away with when it comes to Taiwan.
Ominously, the Chinese ambassador recently threatened potential war between China and the U.S. if Taiwan tried to become truly independent.
A few weeks back I shared that “civil defense” 2.0 is likely going to be coming back to our emergency management programs. We will have gone full circle from our roots and then rotated back with a component of what we do being about protecting our homeland.
