The visit of Nancy Pelosi, the second highest ranking officer to the Presidency of the U.S is fanning the embers of controversies because of her planned visit to Taiwan an island that China has laid claim to as part of its territory.
Taiwan is a self-ruled island with a population of over 20 million people led by premier Su Tseng-chang and President Tsai Ing-wen. Taiwan had been a colony of the Netherlands, China and Japan, though China had the longest ruling span of over 200 years in the 17th century.
In the 1990s Taiwan dropped the claim of being a territory of China while China consistently maintain that it has jurisdiction over the Island.
In recent times
Beijing in recent times had repeatedly warned of serious consequences if Pelosi should attempt or visit Taiwan Island, China had promised to retaliate with economic sanctions and military incursions that may not be comfortable for the self-ruled island.
China went to the extent of threatening President Joe Biden and the U.S. that “those who played with fire will perish by it” should Pelosi visit Taiwan.
Pelosi despised the stand-off in strong support for the tenets of democracy
Nancy Pelosi, 82, a political amazon and like a colossus despised the controversies and jettisoned the threats of China in a strong commitment to a free world and democracy arrived at Taipel, the capital of Taiwan in pomp and pageantry on Tuesday, August,2nd 2022.
The visit of Pelosi marks an end and a break to the last 25 years since a top U.S. diplomat visited the Island, the last U.S. house speaker to visit Taiwan was Newt Gingrich, in 1997. The visit is seen by some analysts as stirring the hornet's nests’ as the visit further underscores the Sino- U.S tension.
China’s retaliation
The highly infuriated Chinese government has responded with a series of economic sanctions with other measures to follow. China's customs department announced a suspension of imports of citrus fruits, chilled white striped hairtail and frozen horse mackerel from Taiwan, while its commerce ministry banned the export of natural sand to Taiwan.
2022 a year of controversies and global altercations
Clearly, 2022 has been a year of mixed controversies within the global space. The pandemics of this world, the evolving monkeypox, the Ukraine-Russia conflict, the grandstanding of China against Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan coupled with a severe cold war within the superpowers and inflationary trends that has hit all the economies of the world.
Nancy Pelosi like an Amazon has refused to be cocooned by fear and intimidation of China. She has unequivocally demonstrated a solid commitment to her political belief and respect for democracy despite China being an economic, military and geopolitical force.
However, the U.S and China need to still engage diplomatically and settle their differences as the 2 countries are strategic and too valuable to the economic prosperity and stability of the global community.
SOURCE: MSBM
IMAGE SOURCE: CNBC
