Taiwan Strait
China staged a massive military exercise this week, simulating an all-out invasion of Taiwan. Some 18,000 Chinese troops practiced land, sea, and air maneuvers on islands in the Taiwan Strait. China usually keeps its exercises secret, but state media reported on this one—perhaps to drive home the recent vow by military chief Jiang Zemin that China will reclaim sovereignty over Taiwan by 2020. The U.S. also held a military exercise this week, the largest ever staged. It coordinated seven aircraft-carrier groups, 50 warships, 600 aircraft, and 150,000 troops all over the world, including in the western Pacific. The U.S. said the exercise was not related to the Taiwan issue, but commentators in Asia portrayed the U.S. moves as a warning to China.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
5 fact-checked cartoons about Meta firing its fact checkersCartoons Artists take on playing chicken, information superhighway, and more
-
NCHIs: the controversy over non-crime hate incidentsThe Explainer Is the policing of non-crime hate incidents an Orwellian outrage or an essential tool of modern law enforcement?
-
Islamic State: the terror group's second actTalking Point Isis has carried out almost 700 attacks in Syria over the past year, according to one estimate
