What does it mean?
It this for domestic consumption?
Is it a pratice drill?
And?
What will Taiwan’s military and the Pentagon find are its weaknesses?
Again?
America and Asian’s countries could be hard pressed to just stand by if this happened….
Ukraine lesson….
China does YUGE trade with America and other countries….
What hapopens with THAT?
Does Taiwan want to dance with China or move closer to the rest of Asia?
Is this a move to push America back to WWII’s two front conflicts?
Will all this push America and China to sit down and talk?
(Some say Biden’s China policy looks like Trump’s)
All this from a House Speaker doing a visit?
(Biden did NOT publicly ask Pelosi to NOT to go)
Why is China’s domestic issues spiling into ALL of this….
Is this just a diversion for the leadership of China?
Some of us do NOT believe China will militarily directly attack Taiwan…..
It would just cost China to much and be a mess China does NOT need right now with it’s pandemic, economic and political issues….
Administration officials say that based on their assessments a full cutoff of access to Taiwan is unlikely — in large part because it would hurt China’s own economy at a time of severe economic slowdown. On Friday, the Group of 7 industrialized nations, the core of the Western alliance, warned China not to retaliate for Ms. Pelosi’s visit, clearly an effort to suggest that China would be widely condemned for overreacting, much as Russia was for its invasion of Ukraine.
But American officials say they worry that the events of the next few days could trigger an unintended confrontation between China’s forces and Taiwan’s, especially if the Chinese military launches a missile over the island, or if an incursion into disputed airspace leads to a midair conflict. Something similar happened 20 years ago, when a Chinese military aircraft collided with an American intelligence-gathering plane.
As the military exercises began early Wednesday, White House and Pentagon officials were monitoring the situation closely, trying to figure out if China was sending forces into each of the areas near Taiwan’s coast it has declared closed. But their assessment was that China’s strategy is to intimidate and coerce, without triggering a direct conflict.
Outside experts were more concerned that the exercise could escalate.
“This is one of the scenarios that is difficult to deal with,’’ said Bonny Lin, who directed the Taiwan desk at the Pentagon and held other defense positions before moving to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, where she heads the China Power Project. “If a military exercise transitions to a blockade, when does it become clear that the exercise is now a blockade? Who should be the first to respond? Taiwan’s forces? The United States? It’s not clear….
…
Of course, defending against invasion bears little resemblance to defending against a blockade. Executing a blockade is even harder.
“Threatening a blockade and actually initiating a blockade are two very different things,” said Eric Sayers, a former senior adviser to the U.S. Pacific Command who is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
Mr. Sayers said China has long had the ability to effectively encircle Taiwan if it chose to do so, so the capability itself isn’t a surprise.
“Despite all the threats Beijing has made in recent weeks, it would still be very difficult for the P.L.A. Navy and costly to China’s economy to maintain a blockade for an extended period of time,” Mr. Sayers added, referring to the People’s Liberation Army. “What hurts Taipei’s economy has a similar effect on Beijing.”
Mr. Sayers continued, “What is most significant about China’s response is that it is giving us a preview of how the P.L.A. might deploy an indirect blockade against Taiwan in the future to ratchet up the pressure near an election or other political crisis.”….
China/Taiwan flexing is over…..
China says it has completed nearly a week of military drills around Taiwan following a visit to the self-governing island by US politician Nancy Pelosi.
Sea and air operations were successful, said China’s military, which vowed to keep patrolling the Taiwan Strait.
Ms Pelosi’s brief trip incensed Beijing, which views Taiwan as a breakaway province to be reunited with the mainland – by force if necessary.
Taiwan has accused China of using the drills as practice for an invasion.
The island’s government rejects Chinese claims of sovereignty and sees itself as distinct from the mainland. Beijing seeks to isolate the island internationally.
House Speaker Pelosi, the highest-ranking US official to land in Taiwan since the 1990s, defied China’s warnings not to visit last week, sending tensions soaring…..
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