Turning Up the Heat: China Continues Its Years Long Military Pressure Campaign Around Taiwan

Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te inspects the troops taking part in the Rapid Response Exercise during a visit at the Songshan military airbase in Taipei on March 21, 2025. I-Hwa Cheng/AFP via Getty Images

Commentary

“Taiwan is, of course, a country,” proclaimed the island’s president, Lai Ching-te, on June 22. In his first of a series of 10 lectures, Lai reaffirmed that Taiwan’s sovereignty derives from its 23 million people, earning him a swift rebuke from Beijing. True to form, Beijing resorted to calling Lai’s speech “a ‘Taiwan independence’ declaration that blatantly incited cross-strait confrontation.”