Wendy Sherman: China watching Russia-Ukraine conflict to gauge moves on Taiwan

Former Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman warned on Sunday that China’s leaders are using the international response to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine to gauge its future treatment toward Taiwan.

“China watches what’s happening with Russia and Ukraine,” Sherman, who worked in the Clinton, Obama and Biden administrations, told NewsNation’s Chris Stirewalt.

The Trump administration issued a warning to China last month after the country conducted large-scale military drills in the waters and airspace around Taiwan without prior notice.

China views Taiwan as its territory and has threatened to take the independently governed island by military force, but the U.S. views Taiwan as a strategic partner, and many American tech companies rely on semiconductors made there.

“If Russia can invade a sovereign country and take all of Ukraine or portions of Ukraine, and nobody really stands in the way, then China imagines it can take Taiwan and all of the advanced semiconductors that are made there, and nobody will blink an eye,” Sherman told Stirewalt. “And that is a danger to us.”

Despite pressure from the Trump administration to strike a peace pact, the Russia-Ukraine war has carried on for more than three years since Russia invaded its Eastern European neighbor. Russia similarly claims ownership over independent Ukrainian territory.

The two sides hashed out a prisoner exchange agreement in Turkey earlier this month and said talks would continue on a broader peace deal, but Russia launched drone and missile strikes against Ukraine again on Sunday amid the multiday arrangement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the U.S., Europe and “all those around the world who seek peace” on Sunday to forcefully respond to Russia’s attacks and put more pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin.