World War may be Inevitable
When Nancy Pelosi declared that she would be visiting Taiwan in a solidarity for democracy mission, it was clear that the egos in China will be flared. But what we didn’t know was how much of a problem this was going to be. Now, China is flaring up and has promised to retaliate against both US and Taiwan. And the clock slowly ticks towards midnight as we speak.
As I had predicted earlier that the world is slowly gearing up towards another world conflict in the coming years. I knew that Russia was going to move in on Ukraine and I know China will do the same on Taiwan, but I did not expect US to step in as well. This move by Pelosi is unprecedented and an aggression against the White House’s One China policy which Biden is still backing up even though Pelosi has declared that US stands with democracies against aggressors like China.
This two-faced stance is not going to fly well with a country as volatile as China, which has become even more stringent in its ruling under the leadership of Xi Jinping. When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi flew into Taiwan on an Air Force passenger jet this Tuesday, she became the highest-ranking American official in 25 years to visit the self-ruled island. China announced military maneuvers in retaliation, even as Taiwanese officials welcomed her.
Now, as a result, China is conducting military drills in the region (the same kind of stuff we saw Russia do just before invading Ukraine) by strategically placing their airplane carriers and destroyers in the waters surrounding the island nation. China’s official Xinhua News said the army planned to conduct live-fire drills from Thursday to Sunday across multiple locations. An image released by the news agency indicated that the drills were to take place in six different areas in the waters around Taiwan. Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said early Wednesday that China had sent 21 planes flying toward Taiwan, 18 of them fighter jets. The rest included a early warning plane and an electronic warfare plane.
On the other side, while Biden has expressed that his administration is still supporting the One China policy however, White House has not openly opposed Pelosi’s visit and has left the decision on her. Ahead of her visit, the American military has increased its movements in the Indo-Pacific region. The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Regan and its strike group were in the Philippine Sea on Monday. The Reagan, the cruiser USS Antietam and the destroyer USS Higgins left Singapore after a port visit and moved north towards their home port in Japan. The carrier has an array of aircraft, including F/A-18 fighter jets and helicopters, as well as sophisticated radar systems and other weapons.
Make of this what you will, but even though China has been straightforward in its threats, US is using its age old diversion techniques to amplify the already sensitive situation. The war amongst these giants maybe inevitable but at least we thought the theatre of proxy-wars would still continue for a few years before the cold turns hot.
Our future is likely bleak as we have so far been blessed with the longest reigning peace in our entire species’ history due to the threat of total annihilation because of nuclear weapons. And when these nuclear armed nations face each other, we sure hope that practical and rational minds prevail. For the sake of this civilization, this species, and this planet. But even if it does go south, we at least will not go silently in the night, but end it as it started; a big bang!
