NEW DELHI:The waters of the Taiwan Strait remain turbulent more than two weeks since Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives visited the island. China continues sabre rattling, threatening the worst and has stepped up combat drills by sending its warships and fighter aircraft close to the island.
Is all this just a face saving exercise? is China really serious about using force to reintegrate the island with the mainland? Rup Narayan Das, a China scholar based in Taichung in central Taiwan, answers some of these questions during a chat on StratNewsGlobal.
In his view, the Pelosi visit may have lent credibility to the US commitment to Taiwan and boosted the morale of the Taiwanese government and its people. But as he points out, the visit may deepened the insecurities of the current regime of President Xi Jinping. While the Taiwan turbulence is not expected to hurt his plans for a third term, in the opaque Chinese system, you are never there until you are there.
Tune in for more in this conversation with Dr. Rup Narayan Das.
