Last week’s visit to Taiwan by Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, has worsened tensions in the Taiwan Strait and pushed Washington-Beijing relations to new lows.
Taiwan is one of China’s three “core interests,” which means that the Chinese government feels obliged to take strong action when it perceives the prospects for unification to be threatened (leaving aside the validity of that feeling).
The readiness to take a hard line is strengthened by the conviction among Chinese that the global balance of power is shifting and the tide of history favors their country. It’s easy to understand why they think that and while China may yet prevail in today’s geopolitical competition, it is too early to write the West’s obituary.