With all the news out of the Middle East and the ongoing war in Ukraine, it’s easy to forget that Taiwan is the world’s most dangerous flashpoint. China has long laid claim to the island and acting on those claims could lead to a spiral where Washington and Beijing come to blows over the issue—and nuclear use would remain a terrifying possibility.
Now, a confluence of factors have made the situation in the Taiwan Strait even less stable. The U.S. has been burned badly by Asian nationalism more than a few times in the past, and so should act with utmost prudence today.
At the heart of this growing storm is the brash, new leader of Taiwan, President William Lai of the nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Instead of taking a low profile and playing down any claims to Taiwan’s independent status like his more cautious DPP predecessor Tsai Ying-wen, Lai has lurched toward formal independence with a succession of speeches making the case for Taiwanese nationhood.
One columnist at Taipei Times succinctly summarized Lai’s first address: “Never before has a Taiwanese president devoted an entire speech to laying out clearly, point-by-point, and unequivocally how Taiwan is unquestionably a sovereign nation.”
Not surprisingly, Beijing has reacted to Lai’s address with a string of invective. A June 26 editorial in the state-run Chinese newspaper the Global Times said that he “once again exposed his radical ‘Taiwan independence’ stance” and accused him of “pushing cross-strait relations and Taiwan’s development to the edge of more conflict and risk.”
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