Pelosi's visit on Aug. 2 led China to respond with more than a week of live-fire exercises by the Chinese military around Taiwan, including the firing of five missiles into international waters claimed by Japan. Undaunted, Sen. Ed Markey led a five-member congressional delegation to Taiwan on Aug. 15. Then, on Thursday night, Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee visited Taiwan too.
In 1895, the Qing dynasty, which preceded the Republic of China, ceded Taiwan to Japan, which used it as a base during World War II. Communist China became obsessed with annexing Taiwan only after Chiang Kai-shek and 2 million followers fled to the island when Mao Zedong ousted Chiang from power in 1949.
The hope was that prosperity and income growth would supplant the oppressive elements of communist rule. I remember recommending the stock of Chinese oil giant Sinopec on Forbes on Fox in 2002 at $19 a share; it peaked near $130 five years later, a sign of China’s growth. Now, only 16 nations have official diplomatic relations with Taiwan; the rest of them bow to China’s glowering, including the United States. Yet China is now closer to Russia than ever before, even to the point of backing its widely condemned aggressive war against Ukraine.