US-China relations rn

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi departed Taiwan on Wednesday afternoon after meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen and other high-ranking officials, despite repeated warnings from Beijing against her island visit.

One day later (aka yesterday), China deployed more than 100 planes in the Taiwan Strait, firing live missiles – including four that likely flew over the self-governing island nation – in its biggest military drills in the area in decades.

🤔 Why’s China so upset?... Beijing sees Taiwan as a breakaway province that’ll eventually be under its control again. And China probably doesn’t view Pelosi, the third-highest ranking US official, as an ordinary visitor, especially given the fact that she met with Taiwan’s president.

• The timing of the visit may have also added to the tensions. The CCP’s National Congress, held once every five years, is coming up – during which President Xi Jinping is expected to use a hard line on Taiwan to try to blunt domestic criticism on his handling of Covid, the economy, and other issues.

📸 Big picture: The Biden administration discouraged Pelosi from visiting Taiwan ahead of her trip, stressing to Beijing that the House Speaker isn’t part of the executive branch, and her visit represents no change in America’s “one China” policy towards Taiwan.

• Under the “one China” policy, the US doesn’t officially consider Taiwan a separate sovereign entity, nor does it consider the island nation to be under Chinese rule. This is how America has been able to establish official relations with China, while still maintaining unofficial relations with Taiwan. (In even plainer terms, think of it like Mac in Always Sunny: “I’m playing both sides so I always come out on top.”)

Geopolitics… fairly simple, amirite?🙄😅