TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — An opinion piece published in the SCMP on Tuesday (Aug. 9) compared the visit of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

The SCMP, which was purchased by Alibaba in 2015, published an editorial by Xie Maosong, a senior fellow of the Taihe Institute and a senior researcher at the National Institute of Strategic Studies at Tsinghua University. The article, titled "Pelosi’s Taiwan visit should prompt Beijing to start the reunification process" accuses Pelosi of shattering the trust between China and the U.S. and claims that Beijing's military drills demonstrate the feasibility of an air and sea blockade of Taiwan.

Xie claimed that despite warnings from Beijing of the "dire consequences" of her visit, Pelosi went ahead and landed in Taipei allegedly causing the "shaken trust" between China and the U.S. to be "completely shattered." Xie accused the U.S. of unilaterally changing the status quo providing a "sobering lesson" to Chinese on how Washington has "backtracked on its historical promises on Taiwan."

Contrary to Xie's assertions, upon her arrival in Taiwan, Pelosi emphasized in a press release that the U.S. has recently sent a number of other congressional delegations to Taiwan, and such visits do not contradict longstanding U.S. policy based on the Taiwan Relations Act, U.S.-China Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances. She then reiterated U.S. opposition to "unilateral efforts to change the status quo."

The author argued that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) launched unprecedented military exercises and live-fire drills around Taiwan as a response to the "backtracking U.S." and a warning to "Taiwan independence forces." He claimed that the drills were also meant to serve as a salve for Chinese people, who had allegedly been "humiliated" by alleged U.S. support for Taiwan independence, although no such public statements by Pelosi on independence had been made.

Xie then made the extraordinary claim that Pelosi's visit to Taiwan is to many Chinese what the "Pearl Harbor attack was to Americans during World War II." Xie purported that China's aggressive military response to Pelosi's visit to Taiwan "has the backing of all Chinese people, while some want even more drastic action."

The writer lamented that while the U.S. extended an olive branch to China during the Nixon administration, it has "decided to reverse course." However, Pelosi was not the first house speaker to visit Taiwan, with Newt Gingrich visiting the country in 1997.

Next, Xie outlined apparent PLA strategies for choking off Taiwan economically from the outside world. Xie pointed out that the six live-fire drill zones were positioned close to Keelung Harbor in the north, the Port of Kaoshiung in the south, as well as military bases in between.

He noted that the two zones in the north are in close proximity to Okinawa and could be used to ward off U.S. and Japanese forces from intervening. The zone in the east could be utilized to "prepare for a U.S. military response from Guam," while the zone in the south could similarly be used to fend off U.S. forces arriving from the South China Sea and the Philippines through the Bashi Channel.

Xie concluded that the zones could be used to establish "a complete air and sea blockade of Taiwan," precisely what Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense had accused China of attempting after they set up the zones. Also on Tuesday, China's military announced that it will extend military exercises by sea and air around Taiwan with a focus on "joint blockade and joint support."

The researcher predicted that Beijing could first warn the Taiwan government with a "brief blockade." If it did not produce the desired results, Xie wrote that the blockade could be extended for a longer time period to "completely cut off strategic supplies," as he observed that Taiwan's oil and gas reserves are limited.

In addition, Xie asserted that China had daftly evaded "Pelosi's plot" to lead it into a "Ukraine-like" trap involving a protracted war of attrition. Instead, Xie wrote that Beijing opted to steadily move toward "de facto control" of Taiwan by "nullifying" the median line and air defense identification zone (ADIZ) through its ongoing air and naval incursions.