208 Global News Post 2

This article, written by Oiwan Lam and published on GlobalVoices, discusses US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan in 2022. The author is an experienced writer for GlobalVoices that currently holds the position of Regional Editor for Northeast Asia, and is based out of Hong Kong. She provides several embedded Tweets and various quotes to help elucidate the article’s focus on Taiwan’s public sentiment and local opinions regarding China’s military response to Pelosi’s visit.

To contextualize the controversy surrounding this visit, the article briefly explains the complex relationship between Taiwan (ROC) and China (PRC) since 1949, as well as the several major Taiwan Strait crises in the 20th century. The United States is also a major player in cross-Strait relations, constantly walking a tightrope when dealing with Taiwan as to not provoke China. Rumors appeared in 2022 claiming that Nancy Pelosi would visit Taiwan in the summer, which would have been the first visit by a US House Speaker since Newt Gingrich in 1997. This sparked global fears of what China would do in response. The visit came to fruition, and China quickly retaliated by conducting live-fire military drills around Taiwan. For global citizens, this was a terrifying situation that seemingly signaled the risk of war. What this article reveals, however, is that many Taiwanese citizens may not have had the same doomsday mindsets.

The difference between public sentiment inside and outside of Taiwan is perhaps best summarized by an internet meme included by the author that was circulating at the time. The top half of the image shows Taiwan as portrayed by social media within Taiwan, and has images of delicious food and drinks, cute animal cartoons, and beautiful images of nature. The bottom half, which is supposedly Taiwan according to foreign social media, instead shows images of military vehicles and Nancy Pelosi. The takeaway here is that the threat of China has loomed over Taiwan since the ROC government relocated there in 1949, and while the threat is indeed real and serious, Taiwanese citizens are not only rather used to it, but also have the likely support of the US in case of emergency in the back of their minds.

While footage from Twitter in the article shows tanks deployed on a Chinese beach and a night sky being lit up by military drills, the situation was painted and perceived much differently outside Taiwan than it was within it. Taiwanese people are well aware of the complexity of their relationship with China, and are no stranger to threats, drills, and incursions on their airspace, things that would be simply intolerable by many other countries in the world. This international event is not just an excellent example of how media affects public perceptions, but also of the influence the US has in cross-Strait relations, a major political issue of our time.

Source(s):

Lam, O. (2022, August 3). How are the Taiwanese reacting to China’s military threats following US house speaker’s visit? GlobalVoices. Retrieved February 19, 2023, from https://globalvoices.org/2022/08/03/how-are-taiwanese-reacting-to-chinas-military-threats-following-us-house-speakers-visit/