China to take military action against Taiwan within two decades, says Rudd: The Guardian
The former prime minister Kevin Rudd argues China remains on track to take military action against Taiwan within the next 10 to 20 years.
Rudd is speaking at the Australian National University tonight. The former Labor leader is delivering the JG Crawford Oration titled “The Return of Ideological Man: China under Xi Jinping”.
According to speech notes distributed to media in advance, Rudd is set to welcome the Albanese government’s attempt to “take down the temperature” of the relationship between Australia and China. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, met with Xi on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali last week.
But Rudd is set to declare that the challenges in the relationship remained “formidable”. Rudd will argue that China should use the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations on 3 December to remove trade sanctions against a range of Australian exporters and to release the Australian journalist Cheng Lei from detention.