BY STEVEN KASZAB
Nancy Pelosi, America’s Speaker of the house visited Taiwan. Threats of possible Chinese action against the USA have been made. Well don’t you know that Communist China has claimed Taiwan? Seems that the anti Imperialist Communist China of the past, is on paper an empire unto itself. Having the Speaker of the House visit is much like having the President visit and proclaim to the world what the world already knows, that Taiwan is a free and independent nation.
China has claimed over 1.3 million square miles of the South China Sea, while: Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and Taiwan have set their own claims upon this territory. To further China’s claims, its corporations have begun illegal drilling off the coast of the Philippines, building artificial islands that can be fortified by their navy, and laying claim to much of South Asia’s territorial waters and fishing grounds.
China knows their adversaries fear igniting a war with them, so off they go on their merry way establishing para-military installations, economic docking systems and unapproved international railway systems throughout Asia. Many Chinese military drills have been carried out to bully their neighbours, and threaten other super powers in the region. President Xi has made his intentions clear for all to see, that a unified China must and will be achieved in time.
To bring fear into the hearts of their neighbours, China has shot ballistic missiles into the ocean as practice volleys, and their navy has often placed their ships within their neighbour’s waterways illegally, knowing they can get away with it. All this bravado is for the resource centre region found under the South China Sea. Trillions of dollars of gas, oil, minerals and migrating fish populations waiting to be exploited.
The tension being experienced globally has set one third of the globe’s shipping industry into a state of inaction, floating on eggshells in fear of the arrival of a Chinese war ship. Taiwan has set a standard in Asia, a standard of walking their own walk, and talking their own talk, quietly observing Chinese efforts to destabilize them, while carrying out business as usual.
Most nations within this region respect China’s claims of “One Nation-One China.” Any official recognition of Taiwan by a western nation is diplomatically taboo, and threats of dire consequence are hurled about by China at any nation that gives Taiwan equality and significance globally.