Taiwan imbroglio

The US State Department has urged China to exercise restraint. It reminded Beijing that a routine transit by President Lai should not be used as a pretext for military pressure. There is overwhelming opinion across the world that the scale of Chinese deployment targeting the entire island chain stretching from Japan to Borneo is a clear demonstration of China's intention to intimidate Taiwan militarily by exerting control over critical waterways. No wonder, Beijing's military posture around Taiwan in recent years has raised fears of conflict in the region

- RAJARAM PANDA

China's ruling Communist Party claims the self-governing democracy of Taiwan as its own territory despite never having controlled it, and has not ruled out taking the island by force. It views unofficial interactions between Washington and Taipei as a violation of its sovereignty. Taiwan's leadership rejects China's territorial claims over it.

China seems to be determined to integrate the democratic island of Taiwan with the mainland. China has upped the ante in recent times by increased military activities in Taiwanese waters to intimidate and with the intention to bring Taiwan into submission.

That would not be as simple a proposition as Beijing might imagine. Despite that Beijing has used economic doles with Taiwan's limited diplomatic allies. The intention is to diplomatically isolate Taiwan by coercing those allies to switch allegiance; Beijing would be too credulous to think that Taiwan has no friends.

But Beijing is not deterred. In the latest move, China fielded its largest maritime deployment around the Taiwan Strait and Western Pacific in decades. This surge of Chinese military activities put Taiwan on high alert.

The Chinese provocation came as Taiwan braced for expected military drills after President Lai Ching-te sparked Beijing's ire by making unofficial stops in Hawaii and the US territory of Guam during a weeklong South Pacific tour, which wrapped up on 6 December.

The visit was Lai's first to the United States since becoming president in May. The leader, who has long faced Beijing's wrath for championing Taiwan's sovereignty, used his travel to tout solidarity with like-minded democracies.

Chinese authorities voiced firm opposition to Lai's trip, referring to him as a "separatist." His travel came after the US approved new arms sales to Taiwan, which prompted China to vow "strong countermeasures."