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| Chinese President Xi Jinping and Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen |
International Military - Relations between China and Taiwan have never gotten along. The existence of the One China principle makes both China and Taiwan 'difficult' to be seen as two countries. Because those who have diplomatic relations with China cannot formally relate to Taiwan, and vice versa.
Relations between China and Taiwan continue to heat up over time. China considers that Taiwan is part of Beijing's sovereignty. Therefore, China is trying to be able to 'unify' Taiwan as part of mainland China.
The close relationship between Taiwan and the US also adds to the heat between China and Taipei. The strained triangular relationship between the US, China and Taiwan has emerged once again amid rising military tensions across the Taiwan Strait.
The status of the small, densely populated island off the southeast coast of mainland China is hotly contested and almost daily news reports predict that the newly assertive China will soon take military or other action.
It is a complex situation rooted in the chaos that followed the end of the second world war in Asia and the civil war in China that ended with Mao Zedong's Communist Party establishing the People's Republic on October 1, 1949.
The island, formerly known as Formosa, had been a Japanese colony between 1895-1945 but was placed under the control of Chiang Kai-shek's nationalist Republic of China (ROC) after Japan's defeat.
In 1949, Chiang retreated to Taiwan with about 2 million soldiers, affiliates, and civilian refugees, planning to reclaim the mainland and overthrow the communists. Obviously, this never happened and there has been a global rivalry between the two competing Chinese conceptualizations ever since.
During the cold war, it was often propagated by the ROC and by western sources as "Red China" versus "Free China". But the two spend most of the conflict as brutal, tyrannical dictatorships fueling a cult of personality around their figurehead leader. So the idea of the Taiwanese people as free people is debatable, to say the least.
Neither the PRC nor the ROC recognize the claims of the other party. Limited formal contact and negotiations are usually conducted through proxies to ensure maintenance of the pretense of the other person's lack of legal presence.
And some time ago, Nancy Pelosi, chairman of the US House of Representatives, angered China. Because Pelosi visited Taiwan some time ago. Pelosi's visit appears to have raised tensions between the two neighbours.
Relations between China and Taiwan are heating up due to the visit of US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi. China is reportedly concerned about Nancy Pelosi's presence as a deal for arms giving to Taiwan. And it's no secret that the United States is one of the countries that supply weapons to its allies.
Taiwan's Foreign Minister, Joseph Wu, responded to the strong pressure exerted by Beijing. According to him, Nancy Pelosi's visit is only an excuse for China to carry out military exercises. Joseph Wu believes China is preparing a military invasion of Taiwan. And because China is massively conducting military exercises and relations between China and Taiwan continue to heat up every time.