From 19FortyFive, August 3:
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....
....MUCH MORE
The Speaker was entirely within her rights to make the trip but I sure hope the U.S. military and State Department have gamed out the scenarios 16 moves ahead. Otherwise this is pretty much all we managed to accomplish:
p.s.contra the title, that's not a monkey doing the poking. As one of the commenters pointed out, monkeys have tails. However, the same commenter thought it was a chimp but if I had to guess, I'd say it is a very young gorilla,
Now back to China blockading Taiwan. WTF?
