China Firing Off in Retaliation

At least 11 missiles were fired in the waters around Taiwan

Following House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, China brought out its hardware and started conducting live fire drills around the island.

At least 11 missiles landed in the north, south and east of Taiwan. China is lucky it did not land anywhere else. Meanwhile military vehicles were seen in Xiamen carrying lots of missiles.

China having live fire drills for the next few days

It was a show of force to demonstrate China would follow through with its threat that it plans to take Taiwan, what it considers a "renegade province", back sometime in the future. 

What it has really disrupted is shipments coming out of Taiwan -- that are for China. While there are sanctions against such things as citrus fruits, seafood like scallops and mackerel, and sand -- used to make cement.

It did not sanction things like microchips that China needs for technology...

So perhaps Hong Kong will be the beneficiary of a lot of Taiwanese pineapples? Or maybe not since the Hong Kong government has parroted similar condemnations of Pelosi's visit as Beijing.

There was also a record number of cyberattacks on Taiwan, and it is quite obvious where they came from. But it seems the Taiwanese took this all in stride, familiar with these dangerous tactics for years.

Nevertheless, it's worth noting that China is wasting its energy and military might by firing off these missiles and such. It's the equivalent of a child throwing itself on the floor banging its fists and feet. Not a pretty sight. All this firing of missiles really damage the environment more than anything else. Hardly seems like there are any benefits from firing them into the water.

Pelosi is in Japan and met PM Fumio Kishida

But at the same time other nations in the Pacific Rim should look at what China is doing to Taiwan and think, if and when China invades Taiwan, what are we going to do in response?

This is just the dress rehearsal...