The more United States President Joe Biden’s administration has sought to ease tensions with China through high-level dialogue, the more brazenly Chinese leader Xi Jinping has applied coercive pressure to Taiwan.
Never has this pattern been more obvious than late last month, when China sent 33 warplanes and seven combat ships toward Taiwan, just as its foreign minister, Wang Yi, and U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan were holding talks in Bangkok. Fears that Xi will soon launch an even more overt push for “reunification” with Taiwan are rising.
Taiwan was never part of the People’s Republic of China. It is a self-governing island that, for most of its history, had no relationship with China and has remained fully outside Chinese control for the last 129 years. Even so, Xi has made no secret of his intention to enforce China’s claim to the island. In fact, Xi has called reunification his “historic mission.”