An invasion of Taiwan would do “incredible damage” to China’s standing across the world which would take “years and years” to recover from, says The Australian’s Editor-At-Large Paul Kelly.

Mr Kelly told Sky News he thinks China’s President Xi Jinping is “too smart” to engage in that sort of activity.

“He is going to build pressure by all sorts of means, short of invasion”.

That being said, Mr Kelly commented that Xi Jinping has put invasion “on the table”.

“He’s put it on the table fair and square”.

“He’s made it absolutely clear that China does not rule out the use of force in terms of unification with Taiwan”.