In response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan on August 2 in disregard of China’s strong opposition, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) carried out military exercises on the waters and in the airspace surrounding the island. In addition, Beijing announced a series of countermeasures including trade measures against Taiwan as well as sanctions on Pelosi and her immediate family.

Senior Colonel Zhou Bo (ret.), a senior fellow at Tsinghua University’s Center for International Security and Strategy and a China Forum expert, gave an interview to BBC Newsnight on this issue. When asked what lessons he thought people in Taiwan should draw from the PLA’s missile firings and maneuvers, Zhou answered that the mainland has always hoped to achieve a peaceful reunification of the Chinses nation. The world should put pressure on Pelosi to stop her from doing such foolish things to challenge a China and a PLA that are growing with strength, he added. The PLA’s military exercises “is a demonstration of our capability but it is more of a demonstration of our determination of safeguarding China’s possibility of peaceful reunification,” Zhou told the BBC.

Watch the video here: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0019ttv