The Taiwan Visit.

In the field of international relations, a visit to a foreign country is never just a visit-and if the conditions are ripe for it, a mere visit can snowball into a full-blown crisis. US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan is a good example of such a situation-what on paper is just a congressional delegation tour of many parts of Asia, has pushed consequential questions of US-China relations, and the future of Taiwan, to the foray.

All parties in this complication have reacted in escalatory ways. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday that US politicians who play with fire' on the Taiwan issue will 'come to no good end'. On the US's side, it is evident that the entire idea of the visit was not apolitical-this is the first such visit in 25 years, and appears to be a provocation, with US representatives constantly referencing 'solidarity' with Taiwan and its 'vibrant democracy compared to autocracy'. Taiwan seems unfortunately stuck in this proxy cold war-there are reports that its officials fear that no matter the outcome of this visit, this...