Opinion | Why Russia is strongly backing China on Pelosi’s Taiwan visit

After achieving the first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society, with absolute poverty eradicated, by the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party in 2021, China is now on course to achieve the second centenary goal of becoming a great modern socialist country by 2049, when the People’s Republic turns 100.

However, President Xi Jinping’s long-held aspiration to rejuvenate the Chinese nation cannot be fulfilled without “solving the Taiwan question and realising the complete reunification of the motherland”, which he has described as “unswerving historical tasks”. In 2019, he even said Beijing reserved the right to use force to bring Taiwan under its control.

It is within this context that Nancy Pelosi wrapped up a visit to Taiwan, the first by a US House speaker since 1997.

In the past, armed conflict across the Taiwan Strait was considered an unlikely prospect before 2030, but that timeline may have been brought forward by Pelosi’s visit, which has also provided Beijing with a pretext to test its military hardware and tactics in a real-life environment.

The military drills around Taiwan, announced soon after Pelosi’s trip, have surpassed the exercises held during the Taiwan Strait crisis of 1996 in both geographical scope and intensity. In the recent drills, the People’s Liberation Army breached Taiwanese airspace and simulated a blockade of Taiwan island.

In the past months, Beijing has also been studying Russia’s ups and downs in Ukraine, while stress testing China’s banking system in case it is subjected to the kind of sanctions imposed on Russia.