It is clear now that Beijing is not going to be satisfied by venting its anger at Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan with mere words, or even some targeted sanctions on Taiwan companies.
The announcement of six large exclusion zones around Taiwan starting on Thursday, and lasting for four days, has the potential to turn this into a full-scale crisis.
Beijing did the same thing back in 1996, the last time there was a so called “Taiwan Straits Crisis”. But then the exclusion zones were all well outside Taiwan’s territorial waters.
This time three of the six zones intrude into Taiwan’s 12-mile limit. That is unprecedented.
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In 1996 the then US president Bill Clinton moved two carrier battle groups close to Taiwan, to make it clear the US was ready to intervene if China attacked the island.
But the military balance today is very different from 1996. China has its own carrier battle groups, both of which are reported to be heading towards the Taiwan Strait.
