Youre right. When this trip was announced i barely saw any Western Media reporting it extensively. Only after Global Times and other State media outlets started talking of blowing Pelosis plane did this snowball into a major issue.
Either China was bluffing and US has called the bluff.
Or China is determined to walk the talk.
It will be seen in few hours which one is true.
There are cases in history, like the Chen Sui Bien Taiwan crisis, where the Chinese backed down under threat when Bill Clinton sent in the Carriers.
This time around, it seems they made the decision after a lot of calculations and deliberately made the decision to confront. I have yet to see one case where the Chinese, after making such a deliberative move, were found to be bluffing. Anyways, we will find out soon enough.
One speculation was that they will pick a fight with the Taiwan military. At that point, either the U.S. carrier group, which is nearby, step in ( I am sure if the Chinese do this, they will make sure the U.S. carrier group has plenty of time to join the fight). If the U.S. join the fight and loses, we would look very bad, if we don't join the fight, it will also look bad. Only if we join the fight and win will we salvage what is left of our reputation, but there is simply no chance for us to win in that part of the world.
Please keep in mind we are not talking about an invasion of Taiwan here. Just a fight without any intent to conquer.
