Taiwan

Taiwan (pop. 23 million) is 80 miles off the coast of China, separated from China by the Taiwan Strait. It has a native population, swamped after 1949 by refugees from mainland China after the Nationalists were defeated by the Communists. Until 1971 the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek occupied the China seat at the UN.

China claims Taiwan, and when the US recognized China in 1979, it had to adopt a “one-China” policy acknowledging Taiwan as part of China. The US has an embassy in China, and just a representative office in Taiwan. But the US trades heavily with Taiwan, especially in semiconductors, vital to the electronics industry. The US supplies Taiwan with weapons.

So why is Taiwan in the news? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to pay a visit to Taiwan. (Pres. Biden does not want her to go.) The Chinese government in Beijing sees this visit as a provocation; Ms. Pelosi would be the highest-level US official to visit Taiwan since Newt Gingrich in 1997. The US 7th Fleet has ordered the USS Ronald Reagan, an aircraft carrier, and its strike group north from Singapore. Will they be in the vicinity of Taiwan or sailing through the Taiwan Strait, over which China claims jurisdiction? The Chinese Defense Minister said in June, “If anyone dares to split off Taiwan, we will not hesitate to fight, will not flinch from the cost and fight to the very end.”

(Source: The New York Times, 7/29/22)