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The Conversation
The Conversation
Politics
Todd Hall, Professor, Director of the China Centre, University of Oxford

Taiwan: Beijing reacts to Pelosi's visit with live-fire exercises prompting fears of escalation

Taiwan Beijing Nancy Pelosi Xi Jinping US House of Representatives China Joe Biden Washington D.C. Chinese Communist Party Party Congress

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has reportedly fired several DF-15B ballistic missiles into the seas around Taiwan as part of large scale military drills announced in response to the visit this week by the speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.

The areas chosen for these exercises are unprecedented in their proximity to Taiwan, coming much closer than those of the previous Taiwan Straits Crisis in 1995-1996 and dramatically raising tensions in the region. Taiwan’s defence ministry has denounced the drills as tantamount to a military blockade of the island.

Uniting Taiwan with the mainland has been the goal of the Chinese Communist Party ever since it won the 1946-49 civil war on the mainland against Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek, who fled across the strait with his supporters to install the government of the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan.

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