STATESIDE STORIES: The China Threat –Taiwan the Focal Point

Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, left, and Tsai Ing-wen, President
of Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, on the latter’s visit to Taiwan on 2 August 2022
as part of a tour of Asia, stopping in Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan

by Mary Foran

As Christopher Wray, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a speech at the Hudson Institute, China represents “the greatest long-term threat” to the economic vitality and national security of the United States.

General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and President of China Xi Jinping, right, shown with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing on 4 February 2022

The Chinese Communist Party, he said, is engaged in a multi-layered, generational campaign to become the world’s economic and technological leader.

“It is waging this fight not through legitimate innovation, not through fair and lawful competition, and not by giving their citizens the freedom of thought and speech and creativity that we treasure in the United States. Instead, China is engaged in a whole-of-state effort to become the world’s only superpower by any means necessary.”

Those means, he noted, include economic espionage, data hacking, intellectual property theft, bribery, blackmail and other coercive attempts.

Partial view of Taiwan

“This is not about the Chinese people…For generations, people have journeyed from China to the United States to secure the blessings of liberty for themselves and for their families—and our society is better for their contributions.”

This week, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi landed in Taiwan in defiance of stark warnings and threats from China, including the shooting down of her military plane, if she should dare visit the independent island nation which China claims as its own.

Pelosi, 82, is the highest ranking elected US official to visit Taiwan in 25 years. Beijing has made it clear that it considers her presence as a major “provocation.”

The Pelosi delegation leaves Taiwan on 3 August but the Chinese military remains on high alert

Pelosi commented, “Our delegation’s visit to Taiwan honors America’s unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan’s vibrant democracy.”

China’s military said it was on “high alert” and would ”launch a series of targeted military actions in response” to the visit.

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Images
Featured image/Just Click’s With A Camera via Flickr, PD
Xi Jinping with Putin/ Presidential Executive Office of Russia (kremlin.ru), CC BY4.0 via Wikipedia
Taiwan/HKMAA, PD via Flickr
Pelosi leaving Taiwan/Just Click’s With A Camera via Flickr, PD