Pelosi in Taiwan - Tweaking the Dragon’s Tail?

fpa press briefing august 3rd

On August 3rd, the Foreign Press Association USA held a briefing with Vincent Wei-Cheng Wang, Senior Fellow in the Asia Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and Dean and Professor of Political Science at Adelphi University.

Professor Wang discussed the implications and reactions to
the recent visit of Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, to Taiwan.

Taiwan has a very rare diplomatic coup with the Speaker’s visit, publicly announcing her visit to Taiwan in support of democracy, especially in the face of China's opposition. 
 
Wang pointed out that despite decades of constant and increasing pressure from the PRC, only about 2 or 3% of Taiwanese consider themselves Chinese. They are defiant, resilient, and absolutely not interested in Beijing’s design for them which is why they reach out to speaker Pelosi with open arms. 
 
He acknowledged that the Chinese have become more assertive and powerful, but the Taiwanese and US have not been standing still - they have been expanding their capabilities. The invasion of Ukraine has increased the urgency of this preparation. 
 
The tragic denouement of Hong Kong is a warning sign to Taiwan. Taiwan has always been skeptical of China’s promise to Hong Kong. In the end, the government of Xi Jinping has cracked down on any opposition. After 2019, Xi reduced his talk about one country two systems to a one-China principle. That restricted Taiwan the issue simply to simply being a Taiwan formula. 
 
Professor Wang discussed the geostrategic implications - on the Silicon Front that proved so important with Russia, with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation talks and the implications for US involvement with Japan and South Korea - not to mention the fallout from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.