Xi Tries To Save Face Over Pelosi Fiasco By Staging War Games

Chinese President Xi Jinping may not have been able to stop Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, but he ordered his country's military to rehearse a much more aggressive step: A blockade crucial to taking the island by force, security experts say.

Photo Insert: A PLA Navy ship during RIMPAC drills

China's military planners have long discussed a blockade of Taiwan, but until now most likely saw practicing such a move as too provocative, security experts argue, Yew Lun Tian reported for Reuters.

But after US House Speaker Pelosi's visit, China's military for the first time fired missiles over Taipei, flew waves of drones over Taiwan's offshore islands, sailed warships across the median line of the Taiwan Strait, and surrounded the self-ruled island in what Taiwan's military said amounted to a practice "blockade."

Domestically, Beijing must balance the outrage it whipped up over Pelosi's visit with the embarrassment of not preventing it. State media played up the drills with videos and commentary extolling China's military capabilities.

Former Singaporean diplomat Bilahari Kausikan said the hype is partly a face-saving effort for Xi, who cannot afford to look weak before the party congress. "The hard and incontrovertible fact is that for all the bluster, China failed to deter the Pelosi visit. So the CCP has to put up a show in its response," he said.

"These first actions in effect changed the status quo of Taiwan's security," said Li Mingjiang, an associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

"This gives China's military a new basis from which to push more boundaries in future exercises," he said.

The ability to enforce a blockade would give Beijing leverage to bring Taiwan to the negotiating table during a conflict. If Taiwan, unwilling to suffer large-scale death and destruction, accepted unification bloodlessly, Xi would secure the biggest prize in his long-term goal of "rejuvenation of the Chinese people."

Although Taiwan's public, jaded by decades of Beijing's threats, appeared unfazed, some observers said its military leaders might be worried.

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