The Guardian Weekly

Flashpoint

A Taiwan visit draws China’s ire

TAIWAN By Helen Davidson TAIPEI

Things changed last week for Taiwan. When news of a highly controversial visit by the US speaker, Nancy Pelosi, drew threats of reprisals from Beijing, most citizens shrugged. China frequently fulminates over foreign visits to Taiwan, which it claims is a Chinese province it will soon retake, and with which it tries to stop any international cooperation. Its regular promises of countermeasures rarely exceed some People’s Liberation Army jets flying in and out of Taiwan’s large air defence identification zone (ADIZ).

But analysts warned that this time looked different. Beijing’s protests were louder and more threatening, and gave little room for either it or the US to retreat without losing credibility. This time, it would have to follow through with something bigger, they said. China did.

Dramatic escalation

Shortly after Pelosi arrived, Beijing announced military drills in six sea areas surrounding the main island of Taiwan, starting the morning after her departure and scheduled to end last Sunday. The plan was unprecedented in how close the zones were to Taiwan, including some that overlapped Taiwan’s territorial waters stretching 12km out from its coastline.

Pelosi addressed parliament and met the president, senior ministers, dignitaries and officials last Wednesday before flying out that afternoon.

Thursday morning began with reports of multiple warplane incursions into the ADIZ, and cyberattacks targeting the websites of the president’s office and the ministries of foreign affairs and defence. Signboards at railway stations and in-store screens at the ubiquitous 7-Eleven stores were also hacked, to display messages calling Pelosi a warmonger in the simplified Chinese text used in China.

It then escalated dramatically. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) fired almost a dozen Dongfeng ballistic missiles on Thursday, and made dozens of incursions over the highly symbolic median line. Japan said at least five missiles landed within its exclusive economic zone, and some had flown over Taiwan’s main island, just south of Taipei.

Taiwan sent navy vessels to the median line to drive away the PLA, scrambled jets and deployed landbased missile systems to monitor the situation. The president, Tsai Ing-wen, called for international condemnation.

The US, Japan, Australia, the EU, the G7 and Asean were among the foreign governments or multilateral groups to condemn hostilities or call for calm. The US accused China of choosing to overreact, while its secretary of state, Antony Blinken, told Asean China’s reaction was “flagrantly provocative”.

Beijing accused its critics of being evil, of interfering with internal affairs, and declared its response to be just and right. Chinese military officials lauded their tactics as demonstrating the sort of major blockade China would one day use against Taiwan for real. Its ambassador to France told a reporter Taiwan’s people would be “re-educated”, alarming those familiar with China’s treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. It announced sanctions against Pelosi and her direct relatives, before suspending or cancelling multiple cooperation mechanisms and dialogues with the US.

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2022-08-12T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-08-12T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://theguardianweekly.pressreader.com/article/281870122211394

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