A vessel of the PLA Eastern Theater Command participates in the exercises on Saturday. (LIN JIAN / XINHUA)
In a clear demonstration of the Chinese mainland's resolve to uphold its sovereignty over the island, the People's Liberation Army announced on Sunday that it will continue its military drills around Taiwan that started on Thursday.
The secessionist-minded Tsai Ing-wen administration of the island has to swallow the bitter truth that a siege of the island by the PLA would quickly make any attempt at secession futile as the island depends on external sources for almost all its energy and nearly 70 percent of the grains it consumes.
Tsai, who had just been assured by visiting US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that the US will not "abandon" Taiwan last week, has shown that she has got the message, as she has continuously called on the US club to respond to the "provocations" from the mainland and "protect" Taiwan.
Calling on Japan to help, she directly tweeted a help-me message in Japanese. But such appeals have fallen on deaf ears. Which has only bankrupted her administration's creditability among the Taiwan people, as it takes no real war to prove the Tsai administration's long-term promise of the island being "protected" is far-fetched.
The USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier strike group is symbolically loitering far away from the island, while the PLA's planes, vessels, drones and missiles are even visible with naked eyes from the island.
If the mainland took this opportunity to resolve the Taiwan question by force, the US would not be in a position to intervene.
The truth is, Taiwan is only a card the US is playing in its game against China, but it is an inalienable part of China. That strategic asymmetry means the strategic input the two sides are willing to dedicate to the Taiwan question is of different magnitudes.
Although the US has the strongest armed forces in the world, the mainland has already gained comparative military advantages over the US in the waters that are necessary for the reunification of the island with its motherland. Not to mention it has the moral high ground of safeguarding its own sovereignty and territorial integrity.
As such, Tsai has no choice but to try to cover up her inability to respond to the situation and her cheating of the Taiwan people by saying that "We are calm and will not act in haste. We are rational and will not act to provoke".
Without repenting the losses her administration has caused the island by discarding the 1992 Consensus and the damage doing so has caused regional stability, Tsai's statement that "We are doing our utmost to uphold the cross-Straits status quo, and we remain open to constructive dialogue (with Beijing)" has only laid bare her hypocrisy and incorrigibility.
The Tsai administration is in no way a victim of the escalation of tensions, but its initiator.