[Salon] China tightens the screws on Taiwan

Bloomberg It was no secret that China mistrusts Taiwan’s new president, Lai Ching-te. This week showed just how much it despises him. China held major military exercises yesterday around the democratic archipelago of 23 million people for the second time since Lai took office in May. It only did so twice during the entire eight-year rule of his predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen. Beijing sent a record number of warplanes across a dividing line in the strait separating Taiwan from the mainland that the US drew in the 1950s to keep the peace. It sailed an aircraft carrier off the main island’s coast and, for the first time, sent ships from its Coast Guard on patrol there. Taiwan also reported a surge in cyberattacks. China was probably always going to hold military drills around Taiwan at some point this year, but it chose to time them right after Lai gave a speech in which he said he’d stand up to challenges from Taipei’s giant neighbor. Beijing was peeved that Lai used that address to say he’d work to “resist annexation or encroachment upon our sovereignty.” He also said neither side was “subordinate to each other.” Those kinds of comments are anathema to China, which says it sees no room to compromise on its claim over Taiwan, home to some of the world’s biggest and most advanced chipmakers. The issue is a major point of contention with Washington, which has long supported the Taiwanese militarily, economically and politically despite ending its mutual defense treaty when it recognized Beijing in the late 1970s. More dramatic examples of Beijing’s anger with Lai may come soon. After the drills had ended, the world’s biggest military by number of troops pledged to flex its muscles whenever it is “provoked.” As a spokesman for China’s Defense Ministry put it: Those in Taiwan pushing for independence need to “understand that a sharp sword hangs high over their heads.”— Philip Glamann Lai during a military exercise in July. Photographer: I-Hwa Cheng/Bloomberg