The outrage reverberated online through the writings of experts and military bloggers. “The old witch,” some called Pelosi. “The old American,” others referred to her. Hu Xijin, a nationalist firebrand and former Global Times editor, even advised Chinese jets to intercept Pelosi’s plane. And “if these are still ineffective, I think it’s also okay to shoot down Pelosi’s plane,” he wrote, to much fanfare. In Chinese society today, such nationalist rhetoric often creates an echo chamber, especially on issues related to China’s sovereignty. Beijing considers Taiwan part of China’s own territory. Generations of Chinese leaders have wanted to “take it back”, and have not renounced the option of a military takeover as a last resort. For a few days, Weibo hashtags criticizing Pelosi and reiterating China’s determination to prevent her remained some of the top trending topics. In the days that followed, scores of provocative statements appeared in almost all official publications. China’s foreign ministry officials, known for their “wolf warrior” style in recent years, continued to talk tough, and many commentators responded well to their harsh anti-American rhetoric. “The will of the people cannot be defied and those who play with fire will perish by it,” Zhao Lijian said, echoing President Xi Jinping’s warning to Biden last week. “It is believed that the US side is fully aware of China’s strong and clear message.” His boss, Hua Chunying, also invoked memories of Mao Zedong, who in 1946 called America a “paper tiger”: “On the surface, the reactionaries are terrifying, but in reality they are not so strong.” The mood was heightened by the warning from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). When news of Pelosi’s visit first broke, the PLA was preparing to celebrate its 95th anniversary. Perhaps unsurprisingly, as Pelosi embarked on her Asia tour, the military again vowed that it “will not stand idly by” if the American politician eventually ends up in Taiwan. Then on Tuesday night, Pelosi appeared in Taipei. By then, Hu’s belligerent post suggesting her flight was shot down had been removed from Twitter for violating the rules. “Taiwan is close to mainland China and Beijing has a lot of cards in hand,” Hu said shortly after the 82-year-old California Democrat arrived. “We will play them one by one with confidence. The PLA announces a series of actions.” It was also a huge event for China’s media operators, despite their hostility to Pelosi. One state website even created a live stream on its official Weibo channel. At one point, 70 million viewers tuned in simultaneously to watch Pelosi arrive in Taiwan, with many viewers commenting “national unification!”. “Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan also created a sense of unity on social media, which was flooded with comments expressing support for the Chinese military and calling for unification with Taiwan,” said Manya Koetse, who runs the website WhatsOnWeibo. “Many netizens also said, ‘I hope that when I wake up tomorrow, we will be united with Taiwan.’ I had never seen such strong feelings of unification on Weibo before this week.” Koetse added that Pelosi’s saga reminded her of last year’s return of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer, from Canada. “Prior to Meng’s arrival in China, there were days of build-up in rhetoric — like this time with Pelosi. But of course Meng was a symbol of national pride, but Pelosi was a humiliation for China.” Promotion for the People’s Liberation Army in a building in Beijing. Photo: Noel Celis/AFP/Getty Images Vowing to respond, the PLA announced it would hold large-scale drills and missile tests around the island of Taiwan from Thursday. State media said this was to show how reckless Pelosi was. The military exercises finally put Asia on edge and called on Asian and European leaders to exercise restraint. However, this was not enough for some. “I’m still angry! The four-day military exercise is very short. If a normalized cruise around the island takes shape, I’ll admit it’s not a loss!” one Weibo user wrote. Said another. “If there is no follow-up action after the military exercise, then this time it is a complete failure of diplomacy and public opinion and there is no point in saying much.” They are not alone. A Beijing resident, Ou, who goes by his last name, said that when he saw Taipei 101 light up for Pelosi in a warm welcome, it was a “huge humiliation for China.” “As a large nation of 1.4 billion people, we should not mince our words when it comes to the unification of Taiwan,” he said. “We have the capabilities” But Jin Lihang*, a Taiwanese living in Beijing, said he was worried. “I felt that Pelosi’s visit was exactly the kind of excuse the PLA was looking for to show what it would look like when the ‘military option’ is seriously deployed one day. It appears that the entire country may soon be on a war footing. That’s scary.” The day before the drills began on Thursday, the Global Times quoted Herman Shui, a retired Taiwanese lieutenant general, as saying the exercise sites were a “model” for “locking down Taiwan.” “This blocking [of Taiwan] it could be part of the action plans for future forceful reunification operations,” he said. Hu, having just fended off Pelosi, comes under fire. “Hu Xijin’s long-standing rhetoric has made it clear that he loves war, desires war and promotes it relentlessly, even at the cost of hijacking our country’s credibility,” said Ren Yi, another powerful pro-government blogger with millions of followers. and who goes by the nickname Chairman Rabbit. He asked: “Hu Xijin is harming the country and harming the people. What does he really want?’ *Name has been changed to protect the individual’s identity
