In early August, China used a visit by the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, to Taiwan, as a pretext to launch a series of military drills around Taiwan. After the recent wave of threatening military exercises, Beijing published a white paper titled “Taiwan Question and China’s reunification in the New Era” as part of efforts to ramp up its rhetorical attacks on Taiwan. Before the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the military threats and political attacks can be viewed as the achievement of Xi Jinping’s Taiwan policy. In securing a third term as CCP General Secretary, Xi needs some breakthroughs in his Taiwan policies following the end of the upheaval in Hong Kong.
By breaking the tacit accord of the U.S.-Sino-Taiwan trilateral relationship with military drills in areas across the median line in the Taiwan Strait, near territorial waters and in the Pacific Ocean to the east of Taiwan, and by making such drills part of a new norm, Beijing is increasing the military risks to Taiwan. These actions are more than just “boiling the frog” or “salami slicing,” but rather a rush to accomplish the goal of unification once and for all, to address a residual problem of history. If Xi achieves this plan, it will play a big role in securing his re-election. This may be the most critical purpose of the recent Chinese military drills.
