China
Military maneuvers near Taiwan + Little impact on supply chains
Dear reader,
If you play with fire you should at the very least try to rule out fatal mistakes. But China's wide-ranging military maneuvers around Taiwan leave ample room for misunderstandings, as demonstrated by five Chinese missiles that struck Japan's exclusive economic zone on Thursday. The legal significance of these rather large zones is debatable. However, it is not at all good manners to fire missiles in the direction of a neighbor and then still brazenly question its territory instead of apologizing – especially since Japan wasn't even involved in the current scuffle over Nancy Pelosi. Now Tokyo is also on the barricades.
David Demes reports for us from Taiwan on how the maneuvers are arriving at the center of the storm and what the government is doing to protect the island's security despite China's show of force. Taiwan's armed forces face a test that requires strong nerves. If necessary, they must show limits to the advance of the People's Liberation Army as part of their maneuvers. But they must not react with aggression, because then disaster threatens.
We also took a look at what the large maneuvers mean for the supply chains. Taiwan is, after all, the world's biggest supplier of microchips. As of Thursday evening, however, experts are giving the all-clear. Cargo ships have looked for new routes or are simply delaying their passage until everything is over, as Nico Beckert reports. However, that could quickly change if China expands the maneuvers even further.
