Nancy Pelosi’s plane landed at Taipei airport (capital of Taiwan) on August 2, 2022 at 10:43 p.m. local time. In the midst of the war between Russia and Ukraine, this visit is not trivial. If Ukraine is widely supported by the United States and Europe, Russia has found another ally in China. The latter has warned against the expansion of NATO on many occasions, and clearly sees this “visit” as an affront. This could therefore mark a further escalation of tensions.
Nancy Pelosi ignores Chinese threats
The Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives arrived in Singapore on Monday, with a delegation of American elected officials, for a four-day Asian tour. She must go to Malaysia, then to South Korea and Japan. On this occasion, Nancy Pelosi said: “The visit of our Congressional delegation honors our determined commitment to supporting Taiwan’s vibrant democracy”. She is the highest-ranking US official to visit the island since her predecessor, Newt Gingrich, in 1997.
But it is no longer a secret for anyone, China wants to get their hands on Taiwan. In this regard, she had warned the United States about a possible trip to the sovereign state, which could trigger a major diplomatic incident: “If you play with fire, you will get burned”Chinese President Xi Jinping told Joe Biden last Thursday during a long telephone conversation. “I hope the American side sees it clearly”, added Xi Jinping. More recently, the Chinese authorities assured that the United States should “pay the price” !
Making themselves an enemy of the 1.4 billion Chinese people will not end up well. Acting like a bully in front of the whole world will only make everyone see that the US is the biggest danger to world peace.
— Hua Chunying (@SpokespersonCHN) August 2, 2022
Translation: To be the enemy of a Chinese people of 1.4 billion people is a bad idea. Acting like a bully in front of the world will only allow everyone to see that the United States represents the greatest danger to world peace.
Between verbal jousting and military threats
China considers Taiwan, with a population of around 23 million, to be one of its provinces, which it has yet to successfully reunify with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese Civil War ( 1949). Wednesday, August 3 in the morning, Nancy Pelosi spoke with the President of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, who defends the sovereignty of Taiwan, without going so far as to ask for independence, which upsets China a lot. “I welcome Ms. Pelosi and her delegation: thank you for taking concrete actions to demonstrate your strong support for Taiwan at this critical time.”, the Taiwanese leader said at a joint press conference. Ms. Pelosi also met Mark Liu, the boss of the company TSMC, world leader in semiconductors, one of the most attractive sectors of the country.
Thus, each country tries to intimidate the other by its diplomatic statements and actions, but also by reinforcing their military presence in the region. The United States sent an aircraft carrier and its carrier strike group, which sailed from Singapore towards the South China Sea, while clarifying that it was a planned movement. As for the Chinese military, it announced military exercises around six no-fly zones in the islands of Taiwan, from August 4 to 7, 2022.
PLA will conduct important military exercises and training activities including live-fire drills in six regions surrounding the Taiwan island from Thursday to Sunday pic.twitter.com/k9q1WEDsyF
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) August 2, 2022
A prelude to a third world war?
Some consider that we are on the verge of a third world war. True or not, it seems very clear that two camps are emerging: the NATO countries on one side, against the BRICS countries on the other. As the Russian-Ukrainian conflict still rages, Taiwan could well become the new theater of clashes between two superpowers, in the race to become the world’s leading economic and military force.
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