By taunting the US ‘paper tiger’, China risks provoking a backlash over Taiwan | George Yin and S Philip Hsu
The historic visit of the US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, to Taiwan on Wednesday has certainly triggered a harsh response from China. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) has been conducting a series of drills around the island that amount to a partial blockade of the Taiwan Strait. In addition, Beijing has announced sanctions against Taiwan, affecting goods from pineapple cakes (a Taiwanese delicacy) to oranges; it has also declared eight countermeasures in response to Pelosi's visit, which included cancelling dialogues between the leaders of Chinese and US military theatres and suspending the joint Sino-US talks on climate change.
Tension in the Taiwan Strait has put the world on edge. The G7 foreign ministers last week called on China to resolve cross-Strait differences by peaceful means". However, there has also been much criticism of Pelosi. For instance, in the New York Times, Thomas Friedman characterised her visit as utterly reckless, dangerous, and irresponsible". For such critics, it could not have happened at a worse time: 1 August is PLA Day, a holiday celebrating the founding of the Chinese army.
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