China received two-and-a-half slaps in the face this week: financial sanctions against a few Chinese and Hong Kong leaders, who don’t have money in the US anyway, and the first formal diplomatic visit from America to Taiwan in over 40 years. To add “insultlett” to insults, the purported reason for the US visit was to discuss health and disease cooperation in the face of the Wuhan-famed pneumoniavirus, with Taiwan being the safest place in the world from the disease.
All of these actions from the US are perfectly understandable.
Countries should visit each other. The US is wrong for not having visited Taiwan over the last two score, just as North and South Korea are wrong for their tensions. The world needs people to talk to each other, whether in government, religion, or otherwise. At least Taiwan and the US seem to be getting along much better than Democrat and Republican voters in America.
Sanctions over Hong Kong’s turn of events are also understandable. Beijing doesn’t have jurisprudence over the world, but certain people in Beijing seem to think so and aren’t afraid to put their opinions in ink and law. No, Americans shouldn’t do business with such folk; no one should, no matter what country they’re from.
As understandable as US actions are, they are nonetheless provocative. We can’t expect Beijing to be happy. America found the perfect storm, and bet the bank that people in the Pentagon know what’s going on. But, something seems different in this week’s volley of cross-Pacific insults: Beijing didn’t pop a hernia like it usually does.
Could the Chinese Communists be learning to not feed taunts from the US? Or, more likely, has Beijing read the clear message of actions and decided to quietly plan retaliatory “messages” of action in ways other than rhetoric? The next few months will tell us.
Great Pacific
China increasingly worried about ‘losing face’ as Japan bankrolls exodus of firms // SCMP
China
China seals off village after bubonic plague death // Independent
South China Sea on knife-edge after Chinese fighters swoop low over disputed islands // Express
Taiwan
US begins highest-level visit in decades // Taipei Times
Foreign students in Taiwan cry out for help over quarantine // Taiwan News
US health secretary to arrive in Taiwan Aug. 9 // Taiwan News
China opposes US military drone sale to Taiwan // Taiwan News
US announces ‘highest level’ visit in decades to Taiwan // Yahoo News
Hong Kong
Korean Peninsula
North Korea working on ‘miniaturized’ nuclear devices: UN report // CNN