Pelosi received a rousing reception in Taipei on Tuesday and received strong bipartisan support in Washington, despite misgivings from the Biden administration. But her trip has angered Beijing and Chinese nationalists – and will complicate already strained ties even after she leaves. Already, China is preparing new shows of force in the Taiwan Strait to make clear that its claims are non-negotiable on the island, which it considers a renegade province. And, as the US moves forward with demonstrations of support for Taiwan, escalating tensions have raised the risks of military conflict, whether intended or not.
The tensions date back to the Chinese Revolution
China insists that Taiwan is part of its country. However, Taiwan is self-governing and its leaders reject Beijing’s claim to sovereignty, meaning political control of the island is contested. Taiwan has been a US ally since 1950, when the US was at war with China in Korea. Mao Zedong’s Communists had just taken power in Beijing in 1949, defeating Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) in a civil war. The former KMT-led government of China retreated to the island of Taiwan and cut off contact with the mainland. A worker dismantles a vandalized statue of Chiang Kai-shek in Keelung, Taiwan, in this 2021 file photo. Kai-shek fled to Taiwan and cut off communications with mainland China after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong’s communists Tung in 1949. (Ann Wang/Reuters) The Taiwan Strait — an arm of the Pacific Ocean that lies between China’s southeast coast and the island of Taiwan — became the site of rising tensions in the 1950s, with China launching artillery attacks on some islands controlled by Taiwan. The US deployed a fleet to protect Taiwan in 1950, and the island fought back using some US-supplied weapons in 1958.
US opposes ‘any unilateral changes’
In 1979, the US adopted the current “one China” policy and changed diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing. He also passed the Taiwan Relations Act, which says the country’s diplomatic ties with China depend on peace in Taiwan. These policies guide the US State Department’s current stance on Taiwan. “We oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo by any side, do not support Taiwan’s independence, and expect cross-strait disputes to be resolved through peaceful means,” the ministry said. states on its website. Neither Canada nor the US recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state, and neither country maintains formal diplomatic relations with the island. In recent decades, one Taiwanese leader has sought closer ties with China, while others have supported formal independence. Former US President Donald Trump broke decades of diplomatic supremacy and angered China with a series of moves, including speaking directly to Taiwan’s president and approving US$1.4 billion in arms sales to the island. A pro-China supporter stomps on a defaced photo of Pelosi during a protest of her visit to Taiwan outside the United States Consulate General in Hong Kong on Wednesday. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters) Wary of China’s reaction, the Biden administration discouraged but did not prevent Pelosi’s recent visit to Taiwan. The government was at pains to stress in Beijing that the speaker of the House is not a member of the executive branch and her visit does not represent any change in the one-China policy. That was small comfort for Beijing. Pelosi, the second in line for the US presidency, was no ordinary visitor and was received almost as a head of state. Taiwan’s skyline lit up with a message of welcome and he met with the biggest names on the island, including its president, senior lawmakers and prominent rights activists.
China calls Pelosi’s visit ‘challenging’
Chinese officials were outraged. “What Pelosi did is definitely not defending and preserving democracy, but challenging and violating China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said after her departure. “Pelosi’s dangerous challenge is purely for personal political capital, which is an absolutely ugly political farce,” Hua said. “China-US relations and regional peace and stability are suffering.” WATCHES | Pelosi sparks fiery Chinese response:
US President Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan sparks fiery Chinese reaction
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has become the first high-ranking US official to visit Taiwan in 25 years. The trip prompted a fiery response from China, including live-fire military exercises around Taiwan. The timing of the visit may have heightened tensions. It came ahead of this year’s Chinese Communist Party Congress in which President Xi Jinping will seek to further consolidate his power by using a hard line on Taiwan to soften domestic criticism over COVID-19, the economy and other issues. However, the status quo – long defined as “strategic ambiguity” for the US and tacit but determined Chinese opposition to any vestige of Taiwan independence – appears no longer tolerable for either side. “It is becoming increasingly difficult to agree on Taiwan for both Beijing and Washington,” said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, professor emeritus at Hong Kong Baptist University. The ground force of China’s People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command conducts a long-range live-fire exercise in the Taiwan Straits from an undisclosed location in this photo released by the military on Thursday. (People’s Liberation Army Brochure/Reuters) In Taipei and the US Congress, moves are underway to clarify the ambiguity that has defined US relations with Taiwan since the 1970s. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will soon consider a bill that would strengthen relations, require the executive branch to do more to bring Taiwan into the international system and take more decisive action to help the island defend itself. China appears to be moving forward with steps that could prove incremental, including live-fire military exercises planned for this week and a steady increase in fighter jet flights in and near Taiwan’s self-declared air defense zone. “They will test the Taiwanese and the Americans,” said Cabestan, the Hong Kong professor. He said the US military’s actions in the region will be critical.
