China Has Started What Looks Like A Sea and Air Blockade of Taiwan

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has left Taiwan after a day of meetings with Taiwanese officials. Despite several warnings, including assessments that Pelosi’s trip might even be harassed, China didn’t respond directly. But now, with Pelosi gone, Beijing is upping the ante.

Sea and Air Blockade 

Hours after Pelosi’s plane departed Taipei, the Chinese military announced large-scale military exercises all around Taiwan, essentially declaring a sea and air blockade around the small island nation.

Indeed, some of the Chinese military drills will take place both within Taiwan’s 12 nautical mile maritime and air territory and 6-mile internal waters, which is considered sovereign territory in international law and has the same rights as ground territory. If Beijing carries out military exercises there, it would be the same as if it landed a battalion of marines in Taiwan for military drills without permission.

In addition, Chinese hackers targeted the Taiwanese presidential office and took down its website with Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. However, it is unlikely that the cyberattack was launched by the Chinese government because Beijing has potent cyber capabilities, and a DDoS attack is one of the simpler cyberattacks out there.

“Let me be clear: The Speaker’s visit is totally consistent with our longstanding One China policy. We’ve been very clear that nothing has changed about our One China policy, which is guided, of course, by the Taiwan Relations Act, the Three Joint U.S.-PRC Communiqués, and the Six Assurances,” Kirby added.

“Now, we’ve seen a number of announcements from the PRC in just the last several hours that are unfortunately right in line with what we had anticipated and what we talked about yesterday. Now, there’s no reason, as I said yesterday, for Beijing to turn this visit, which is consistent with longstanding U.S. policy, into some sort of crisis or use it as a pretext to increase aggressiveness and military activity in or around the Taiwan Strait, now or beyond her travel,” National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said in a press briefing.

One China Policy but Support Taiwan 

Meanwhile, Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan has left a sour taste in Washington. In visiting Taiwan, the speaker of the House ignored the advice of the Biden Administration’s national security team, including that of National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milly, and CIA Director Bill Burns, who all urged her to avoid triggering China by visiting Taiwan at this time.

“Let me be clear: The Speaker’s visit is totally consistent with our longstanding One China policy. We’ve been very clear that nothing has changed about our One China policy, which is guided, of course, by the Taiwan Relations Act, the Three Joint U.S.-PRC Communiqués, and the Six Assurances,” Kirby added.

There is an increased push in D.C. for arming Taiwan with more weapon systems to deter Beijing from a unilateral attempt to reunify the two hostile nations.

“The United States will not and does not — will not seek and does not want a crisis. We are prepared to manage what Beijing chooses to do. At the same time, we will not engage in saber-rattling. We will continue to operate in the seas and the skies of the western Pacific, as we have done for decades. We will continue to support Taiwan, defend a free and open Indo-Pacific, and seek to maintain communication with Beijing. We’ll keep doing what we are doing, which is supporting cross-Strait peace and stability,” Kirby said.

1945’s New Defense and National Security Columnist, Stavros Atlamazoglou is a seasoned defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate. His work has been featured in Business Insider, Sandboxx, and SOFREP.