Taiwan’s presidential election attracted global attention as a proxy conflict between Washington and Beijing. The proxy war concluded with Lai Ching-te from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) winning the 2024 presidential election. The world is responding to a surprise that Lai, the pro-American, pro-independence Taiwanese politician, was elected despite warnings from China – which called Taiwan’s 2024 election a choice between peace and war – not to vote for Lai. “Taiwan is China’s Taiwan,” Chen Binhua, the spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, stated the One China policy after the nomination. China said reunification is inevitable, and their position on national reunification remains unchanged.
  China appears to be preparing for a long-term conflict with the U.S. If China invades Taiwan, the West, including the U.S., would no longer trade with China, and China would be facing isolation. Thus, if a war between Taiwan and China were to occur, China must be prepared for independence in the international community, and China’s action on the U.S. government bond may seem like a preparation for war. According to the China Business News, China’s holdings of U.S. government bonds have recorded 778 billion USD, hitting below 800 billion USD for the first time since 2009. The reason why China is no longer buying U.S. government bonds and its decision to sell them is intricate, but one undeniable fact is China’s reliance on the U.S. is shrinking. 
  The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) stated, “We hope that peace and stability are maintained around the Taiwan Strait and that cross-strait relations progress in a peaceful way” and stayed neutral. Experts like Chung Jae-hung, the director of the Center for Chinese Studies at the Sejong Institute, were concerned that the election’s outcome may cause a bigger diplomatic burden on China.
  Although China’s One China policy is evident, doing so through war would pose significant difficulty, and China will not invade Taiwan for now. However, the future is uncertain, and the threat exists of China invading Taiwan. War cannot be justified by any means or reason. War brings devastating consequences and should be avoided at all costs. Disputes should be settled by diplomacy instead of by force.