From the Telegraph / Yahoo!News:
"US weakness on Ukraine will only embolden China
Sun, January 19, 2025
When Donald Trump takes office, his greatest challenge will be how he deals with the new axis of totalitarian states. This axis comprises China, North Korea, Russia, Iran, Myanmar and a growing number of others. With China at its heart, it poses the greatest threat the Free World has faced since the Cold War.
China is a dictatorship, committing genocide in Xinjiang to eradicate the Uyghurs, it uses forced labour, persecutes religious groups and democracy campaigners. China is now building up its military and navy at an astonishing rate, to challenge the US. It has asserted ownership of disputed strategic territories in the South China Sea. Perhaps most critical is its threat to invade Taiwan.
The interesting thing about brutal dictators is that they tell you in advance what their ambitions are, as in the 1930s. Leaders in the West failed to believe Hitler and tens of millions died. Vladimir Putin couldn’t be clearer about his plans for greater Russia including Ukraine (as his seizure of Crimea demonstrated). Xi Jinping has made no secret of his plans to turn China into the dominant global superpower militarily and economically. He believes democracy and human rights are an aberration and that his form of autocracy is the historical norm.
Having betrayed the Sino-British treaty on Hong Kong and grabbed the South China Seas, with the West barely making a whimper, now he plans to annex Taiwan too.
Yet China does not work alone.
China is still a very close partner of Putin’s Russia. Both observed the chaotic withdrawal of western troops from Afghanistan and will have reached the same conclusion that the West lacks the leadership and perseverance to stay the course. It was that debacle that emboldened Putin to invade Ukraine. The resulting brutal war dominated by Russian barbed wire, mines and drones has led to hundreds of thousands of dead and wounded. Even now, Ukrainian men and women fight for every inch of their precious land, paying with their lives.
The harsh reality is that most European countries ignored the signals and had hollowed out their defence capability, spending instead on what they saw as domestic priorities. Whilst the UK led the way early in supporting Ukraine, too many Western European countries were slow to act, dependent for their energy on Russia.
In December 2023 I went to Washington with a small group of Conservative MPs to discuss the proposed funding for Ukraine, which at that time hung in the balance in Congress. This was not long after the October 7 massacre. Understandably, those Congressmen and women we met said their priority was to ensure the IDF defeated this terrorist group. Their two priorities were Israel and Taiwan. My response was that these three issues cannot be separated. The attack on Israel helped both Russia and China, by taking America’s attention off Ukraine and Taiwan.
The resultant delay in approving vital military supplies cost Ukraine dear in lost territory. This axis will have suspected that Israel’s needs would outweigh Kyiv’s in the US, giving Russia time and isolating Ukraine at a critical moment.
Trump’s plans to achieve some kind of peace accord between Putin and President Zelensky are on the face of it laudable. However, as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher knew, the lesson of the Second World War was that peace without justice never lasts. Remember how Hitler was given the Sudetenland by France and Britain in an attempt to appease him - a year later Hitler invaded the rest of the country.
I have been to Ukraine on a number of occasions and seen first-hand the astonishing bravery of the Ukrainian people. Their fight should be seen as our fight in the West. Ukraine deserves more than a short-term settlement, in which Putin is rewarded for his brutality.
I hope President Trump recognises that Ukraine’s predicament has come about because of weak leadership in the west and its appeasement of Russia and China. If Ukraine is forced to accept Russia’s hold over 20 per cent of their country, as part of a settlement, then in echoes of 1938 Putin will be back for the rest.
And with China looking on, our weakness will mean Taiwan is next. I pray we do not repeat the mistakes of the past."
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