Taiwan Strait: Pelosi Visit and Chinese Military Response
On 02 August 2022, US Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan, the most senior US official to visit Taiwan since Newt Gingrich in 1997.
Taiwan is administered by the Republic of China (ROC) but claimed by the People’s Republic of China (PRC), who refer to Taiwan as Chinese Taipei. The US has not recognised the ROC as an independent state since 1979, but Washington and Taipei continue to have strong economic and military ties.
Rumours of the Pelosi visit elicited a strong response from Beijing, who promised an escalation in the PRC’s military presence in the Taiwan Strait. In response to Pelosi’s visit, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy of the PRC announced six days of live-fire military exercises in the waters surrounding Taiwan. It has designated six zones for the exercises, two of which overlap with the territorial sea and internal waters of the ROC. The PRC maintains that the ROC are separatists and that ROC sovereignty over those waters is not non-existent.
Read on to access our analysis of what events may follow.
Download your copy by filling in the form above.