Raining Dongfeng missiles

Crises once they start just get bigger and bigger. After more than five months of war in Ukraine the world has sort of got used to it and hopes it will end soon. Then Nancy Pelosi flies into Taiwan and all hell is et loose. Whether it was a mistake or a much-needed poke in the eye of the Chinese we will have to wait and see. But the elegant Speaker of the House in her pink trouser suit was hailed as a heroine when she landed and Beijing went ballistic. In the true sense of the word. The PLA fired 11 Dongfeng ballistic missiles towards Taiwan in the angriest and most blatantly aggressive military action against the breakaway island and held military exercises that effectively involved a blockade. I'm sure Putin was pleased, it would have given him a lot of satisfaction that his friend Xi Zinping had seized the headlines from him. But it is seriously worrying. Both China and Russia at loggerheads with the US and determined to spell out in no uncertain terms what their military can do. Pelosi went to Taiwan without the blessing of either President Biden or the Pentagon so she is not the favourite person right now in Washington, having stirred up a hornet's nest of Chinese bad temper. But I have a feeling her action might secretly please Biden's national security team. China had to be told that Taiwan was off limits to the PLA, and Pelosi's brief trip sent a message to Beijing that the Washington administration was not going to be pushed around. Nevertheless the outburst of military aggression was alarming, especially for the Taiwanese although they have become used to PLA brinkmanhsip for decades.