Back to Normal! Taiwan’s new normal as the China threat of global trade!

Updated on August 19, 2022 16:32 PM by Evelyn Mia

Taiwan Strait!

The Taiwan Strait is the world's most important shipping route. It is 180-kilometer-wide as the Taiwan Strait separates the island of Taiwan and continental Asia. The Taiwan Strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to the East China Sea north as the narrowest part is 130 km wide. Taiwan Strait is the gateway for ships of almost every kind to pass to and from the important ports in Northeast Asia. It's also building major wind farms in the Strait.

New Normal!

Across the Taiwan Strait, China is attempting to establish a new normal by eroding self-ruled Taiwan’s territorial control and increasing the threat of a strike with each military sortie. Beijing ramped up military maneuvers in the 100-mile that stretch of Taiwan from mainland China. The United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other US officials expressed that Beijing used its military response to her visit to change with the presence of Chinese planes and ships is more common and difficult to change. On 8^th August, Colin Kahl, the US undersecretary of defense for policy, said Beijing is trying to create a new normal to coerce Taiwan.

Pelosi's trip to Taiwan!

On 2^nd August, Pelosi landed in Taiwan, where the PLA announced four days of military exercises in six zones encircling the islands. Around Taiwan, numerous Chinese warships are steaming in the Taiwan Strait, and dozens of PLA warplanes are breaching the median line. As the Pelosi landed in Taiwan on 8^th August, the last four days of drills announced the night through 16^th August, between 10 and 21 PLA aircraft crossed the median line each day. Daniel Kritenbrink, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, called the PLA's action since Pelosi's visit to the island was protective, destabilizing, and unprecedented. Beijing seeks to establish a new normal as Taiwan’s claims to separate airspace and territorial water.

The flow of goods!

This year about half of the world's container fleets and nearly 90 percent of its largest vessels by tonnage have passed through the Strait, which facilities the flow of goods between East Asia and global markets. This week shipping data showed vessels had largely resumed their normal routes through the Strait. China's military activities evolve into an ever-present risk as the industries find it scrambling for contingency plans.

China relies on trade through the Strait to sustain its economy. Shanghai, Shenzhen, Ningbo, and Guangzhou are the ports that rank the world and are the five largest that sit along the seaboard opposite the Strait. Shipping publication Lloyd's List warns of the self-inflicted damage ongoing interruptions would do to state-owned China Ocean Shipping Company, China's largest shipping fleet and fourth-largest globally.

Preliminary attacks!

Military drills that stimulate actual battles have become the new normal. This week, Bonny Lin, director of the China Power Project, and Joel Wuthnow, a senior research fellow in the center for the study of Chinese Military Affairs at the US National Defense University, wrote that Beijing would no longer exercise restraint in keeping its operations mainly west of the Taiwan Strait centerline and engage in operations closer to Taiwan.

Also Read: Taiwan says many Chinese aircraft and warships sighted in probable simulated attack

Kurt Campbell, US President Joe Biden's coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, said that US forces would use one of their normal tactics to practice freedom of navigation. He said that fly, sail and operate where international law allows, consistent with a longstanding commitment to freedom of navigation, including maritime transits through the Taiwan Strait.