Tensions but, for the moment, without explosion. As Nancy Pelosi left Taiwan on Wednesday night, China promised to step up military exercises on Thursday and announced trade sanctions against the island in retaliation. Here’s what to remember from these 48 hours of lying poker.
What Nancy Pelosi said and did
Nancy Pelosi said she came “in peace”. On Wednesday, there was a symbolic handshake between the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives and the first president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen. Nancy Pelosi also met parliamentarians as well as dissidents, including former Tiananmen student leader Wu’er Kaixi.
In what could be one of her last trips as House boss — should the Democrats lose their majority in November in the midterms — Nancy Pelosi weighed her every word. She has carefully avoided straying too far from the US “one China” doctrine principally established by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Since 1979, Washington has recognized only one Chinese government, that of Beijing. But as the points out the ForeignPolicy websiteNancy Pelosi cultivated American “strategic ambiguity” by coming to show “her unwavering support for democracy” in Taiwan, three months before the congress of the Chinese Communist Party during which Xi Jinping will run for a third term.
If this timing has complicated Joe Biden’s life, Nancy Pelosi has received the support of around twenty Republican senators. Several hawks are campaigning for the end of this American ambiguity and urging Joe Biden to draw a red line. The latter seemed to do so last May: in response to a journalist’s question, the American president had assured that the United States was ready to defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack. Faced with Beijing’s fury, the White House then clarified that there was no change: Washington only undertakes to “provide arms so that Taiwan can defend itself”.
What Beijing responded
Nancy Pelosi’s stay has sparked the ire of Beijing, which considers Taiwan to be part of its territory and vehemently opposes any form of international recognition of the island. “Those who offend China will be punished,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi promised on Wednesday. On several occasions, Chinese military aircraft have flirted with Taiwanese airspace.
China’s Defense Ministry has pledged “targeted military actions”, with a series of military maneuvers around the island to begin on Thursday, including “long-range live ammunition firing” in the Taiwan Strait, which separates the island in mainland China. And China “will retaliate vigorously” if the Taiwanese army seeks to disrupt its military exercises, an anonymous source in the Chinese army told AFP on Wednesday evening. According to the coordinates published by the Chinese army, part of the military operations must take place 20 kilometers from the coast of Taiwan.
What Taipei replied
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said the island “would not back down” in the face of the threat from China and the heads of diplomacy of the seven richest countries in the world (G7) estimated that Beijing’s “escalating response” “risks increasing tensions and destabilizing the region”.
“We will (…) continue to defend democracy,” said the President of Taiwan. “Faced with deliberately increased military threats, Taiwan will not back down,” insisted the Taiwanese president. “Some of China’s maneuver areas encroach on…Taiwan’s territorial waters,” Taiwan Defense Ministry spokesman Sun Li-fang said.
The Taiwanese Ministry of Defense assured that the army would “protect national security”. Several American ships also cruise in the region, including the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, according to American military sources.