Calm in Taiwan

Top Southeast Asian diplomats are urging “maximum restraint.” [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( As the outside world debated war risks, Taiwanese tourists flocked to glimpse China’s most provocative military drills in decades from their closest vantage point. Ferries today to Little Liuqiu island — less than 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from where the drills nearest to Taiwan’s mainland were scheduled to kick off — were busy, local media reported. Tourists carried cameras and telescopes to witness the People’s Liberation Army encircle their island with exercises that included firing missiles into the sea. Key reading: - [China Test-Fires Missiles in Military Drills Around Taiwan]( - [China Drills Force Ships to Sail Around Taiwan Danger Zones]( - [Asean Envoys Warn Against Miscalculation, Conflict in Taiwan]( - [White House Lobbies Democrats Against Bid to Deepen Taiwan Ties]( - [Pelosi’s Taiwan Trip Left a Fuming White House Scrambling for a Plan]( - [China Cancels Japan Meeting Over G-7 Criticism of Taiwan Drills]( US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei this week has escalated tensions between China and America, triggering the military response alongside Chinese economic penalties against Taiwan, the self-governing island that Beijing regards as its own territory. Top Southeast Asian diplomats are urging “maximum restraint” in the Taiwan Strait. China called off a face-to-face meeting between Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Japanese counterpart after the Group of Seven nations issued a statement expressing concern about Beijing’s “threatening actions” around Taiwan. But for those living in Taiwan, it is not all that startling. They are similar to the residents of South Korea, long living in the shadow of nuclear-armed North Korea, who shrug off Kim Jong Un’s regular vows to destroy his neighbor. The people of Taiwan have seen bouts of high tension before. China has for years parked missiles on its coast that point out toward the Taiwan Strait, and its military planes fly almost daily into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone. That relatively calm attitude also reflects a broader reality that the Taiwanese perhaps know best: None of the three sides involved want a war, however much President Xi Jinping warns the US against “playing with fire.” — [Jenni Marsh]( and [Cindy Wang]( Chinese military helicopters today fly past Pingtan island, one of mainland China’s closest points from Taiwan. Photographer: Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images If you missed our weekly Twitter Space conversation yesterday on Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan you can still listen back [via this link]( as our reporters from the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia talk about the imperatives for all sides. Click [here]( meantime to subscribe to our weekly newsletter Next Africa. Global Headlines Reaching out | Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is [seeking talks]( with Xi but says Beijing hasn’t replied to the request since Russia invaded his country in February. A dialog “would be helpful,” Zelenskiy told the South China Morning Post, adding Beijing could “sort of put the Russian Federation in a certain place” to help end the war. - The US Senate [ratified]( adding Sweden and Finland to NATO membership by a 95-1 vote, a move aimed at bolstering the military alliance in response to the war. Little reward | US President Joe Biden’s expectation after his visit to Saudi Arabia that oil producers would act to cool prices was dashed after OPEC+ nations announced a [token supply]( increase yesterday. The hike of 100,000 barrels a day — just 1/1000th of global demand — offers little respite for consumers suffering the inflationary squeeze of energy costs. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres yesterday [skewered]( global energy firms, saying it’s “immoral for oil and gas companies to be making record profits from this energy crisis” spawned by the war in Ukraine. He called for nations to impose excess profit taxes. Deepening crisis | High river temperatures driven by scorching weather will probably force Electricite de France to [extend cuts]( to nuclear generation that have turned Europe’s biggest producer of atomic energy into a power importer. That is adding to the region’s woes as gas reductions made by Russia in retaliation for sanctions drive a surge in prices. Best of Bloomberg Opinion - [Getting Grain Out of Ukraine Is a Minefield: James Stavridis]( - [Don’t Start a New War Over License Plates: Andreas Kluth]( - [Xi Jinping’s $920 Billion VC Push Has a Dark Side: Shuli Ren]( Bouncing back | UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss [regained]( the momentum in the race to succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister after an embarrassing policy U-turn on public sector pay. She received the backing of former chancellor and leadership contender Sajid Javid late yesterday, a blow to her rival Rishi Sunak who’d previously worked with him in the Treasury. 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News to Note - Australia’s new government rejected plans for a major coal project near the Great Barrier Reef, a sharp change in policy in one of the biggest exporters of the [polluting fossil fuel](. - Seven South African opposition parties are pushing to hold President Cyril Ramaphosa to account over [a burglary]( at a game farm he owns — they want the anti-graft ombudsman to publicly disclose responses from Ramaphosa to questions about the incident. - Diplomats from the US, Europe and Iran are set to return to Vienna after months of deadlock for another attempt to save their [moribund nuclear deal](, as high energy prices continue to stalk the global economy. - Top Taliban officials didn’t know al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri [was hiding]( in Afghanistan, a spokesman said, with an investigation under way to check the veracity of US claims he was killed in an American airstrike over the weekend. And finally ... President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration is pushing a development [bonanza]( in the region around Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second-largest city, including a $42-million dam built by a Chinese company that could end water shortages for more than half a million people. As [Godfrey Marawanyika]( and [Antony Sguazzin]( explain, it’s part of a strategy to win votes in next year’s election in a traditional opposition stronghold dominated by the minority Ndebele ethnic group. The Gwayi-Shangani dam under construction. Photographer: Godfrey Marawanyika/Bloomberg Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Balance of Power newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( [Ads Powered By Liveintent]( | [Ad Choices]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022