Don’t Let China Change the Status Quo Over Taiwan
Chinese aggression risks creating a new normal in the Taiwan Strait. The US needs to push back — intelligently.
On constant alert.
Photographer: Sam Yeh/AFP/Getty Images
Although Chinese missiles are no longer arcing over Taiwan, things have hardly returned to normal in what is arguably the world’s most dangerous flashpoint. To reestablish a more favorable equilibrium, the US will have to do more to both deter and reassure China.
Chinese leaders seized upon House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s high-profile visit to Taiwan earlier this month to launch the biggest and most sophisticated military exercises ever conducted near the island. During the drills, different branches of the Chinese military simulated both blockading and invading maneuvers. Several ballistic missiles overflew Taiwan and appear to have landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone. Chinese fighters and bombers took to crossing the median line in the Taiwan Strait — an invisible but previously accepted divide — daily. China announced additional exercises after more US legislators followed in Pelosi’s footsteps.