Conflict coverage · Taiwan Strait

Pelosi visit and the largest exercises in decades

August 2022Key eventEssentialTaiwan Strait

DiplomaticMilitaryThe Strait and the median line

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visits Taipei. Beijing responds with the largest military exercises around Taiwan in decades, announcing live-fire areas on multiple sides of the island and firing ballistic missiles that overflew it, alongside trade measures and the suspension of several bilateral dialogue channels with Washington.

Why it mattersAugust 2022 is the hinge of the current period. The exercises themselves ended; the changes they introduced did not. This is where encirclement-style activity became an available instrument and where the median line stopped functioning as a restraint.

Confidence: HighSources: Reuters — Taiwan and China coverage ↗ · Taiwan Ministry of National Defense — activity reporting ↗ · CSIS China Power Project and ChinaPower analysis ↗Methodology Corrections

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Related structure

5 records that this event names, or that name it. Every one is an explicit reference in a published record — nothing here is inferred from subject matter.

Part of

Campaigns whose record places this event inside them.

Maritime interdiction
Defence reformReassessment after 2022
Grey-zone pressureThe median line stops functioning

Actors

Actor records this event names.

Where this fits

This is one entry in the Taiwan Strait timeline. The full Key Events surface carries every dated turning point with its filters and its essential subset, and this event in place shows what came before and after it. How Vigil grades, dates and sources its claims is set out in the methodology.