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China simulated “joint precision strikes” against targets in Taiwan. These Chinese military maneuvers were announced following the meeting between Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wen and Speaker of the US House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy in California.
For Maria Ferreiraa Portuguese researcher at the Higher Institute of Social and Political Sciences at the Technical University of Lisbon, this attitude is not a “form of retaliation” on the part of China, but rather a response to what the country understands to be a “provocation”.
“We must remember that, until 2022, Chinese foreign policy was characterized by a clearly defensive posture, strengthening its economic power, discreetly advancing in strengthening its military power,” he began by saying.
The university professor then recalled the Nancy Pelosi visitSpeaker of the US House of Representatives, to Taiwan, a moment that further heightened tensions between China and the United States of America.
“In 2022, Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei, associated, obviously, with the war in Ukraine, inaugurated the emergence of a new, more offensive phase of Chinese foreign policy, and particularly of Chinese foreign policy towards the Indo-Pacific region. Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan implemented what some analysts have dubbed a new status quo in relations between China and the western world, namely the US, escalating tensions between the two states.“, he further stressed.
The researcher recalls that after this visitChina canceled “eight initiatives of cooperation and military dialogue with the US and developed military exercises, taking the Sino-US tension to the highest levels in 30 years“.
“What was at stake in August 2022 is exactly what is at stake today, in 2023. That is, the growing Chinese support for Russian special military intervention in Ukraine, but, above all, the Chinese will to make the US lower commercial tariffs on the export of products to and from China, namely the issue of semi-conductors, whose export to China is being blocked by the US, but also by Japan and the Netherlands”, he added.
Maria Ferreira stresses that “China is highly dependent on these semi-conductors”, and that Taiwan turns out to be a “bartering chip” and a “security game” between China and the US.
“Western states, Japan and the USA have indicated that they do not or will not export semi-conductors, if they do not have the guarantee that the chips will not be used in the growing militarization of China and in the strengthening of the Chinese military apparatus. Basically, Taiwan turns out to be a bargaining chip, a security game and a commercial game between the United States and China.“, he added.
Listen to part of the interview here:
Situation in Taiwan, comment Professor Maria Ferreira, 09-04-2023
Military exercises with live fire in the Taiwan Strait
From the beginning of this week, namely from Monday, the exercises in the Taiwan Strait will include real firel, according to Fujian authorities.
Chinese state television notes that the aim is to establish China’s ability “to take control of the sea, airspace and information”, with the aim of exercising a total siege on Taiwan.
Asked whether, this time, we are facing an even more real threat from China, Maria Ferreira, considers that no, that it is a “defensive response” by the country.
“I continue to think that it is a response to an attitude that the Chinese and the Chinese leadership find offensive and I must remind you that the Speaker of the US House of Representatives had initially thought of going to Taiwan in person. He ended up receiving the President Tsai in California, not to increase tensions, but obviously the escalation of tensions was inevitable. China had already warned that this would happen, but it continues to be, in my view, a defensive response, a response of those who do not want to lose the face“, concluded the Portuguese researcher.
Listen to the other part of the interview here:
Professor Maria Ferreira’s commentary on Taiwan, 09-04-2023