Joining us to discuss I am very excited to say, is Samson Ellis Bloomberg type he bureau chief with me here in the Singapore studio. I think it's been many years since I've seen you. Pandemic obviously one of those key reasons great to have you with us to to talk through this story, because I mean, there was so much I guess drama about Nancy Pelosi going. Why is this kind of being kept under the radar. Well, that's a very good question, I mean, to be perfectly honest,
these types of trips happen all the time. Like we're looking at the data right now, and you know, there are at least you know, usually in a typical a year, there are up to twenty, maybe even a few more US lawmakers who do visit Taiwan. So these trips are happening all the time, but they are typically happening slightly
under the radar. There's not a whole you know, amount of fanfare around them, and there's often not you know, usually there isn't quite the reaction from the Chinese side that we've seen too after Speaker Pelosi's trip ten days ago, so you know, it's pretty part of the course that
you you get these visits happening all the time. Um. But obviously, the reason we're looking at this more closely, the reason we care about this, the reason we're talking about this right now, is it comes so soon after Pelosi's trip and the you know, the the massive reaction we saw from the Chinese side. Yeah, and on that reaction, I mean, one of the things she mentioned was the men didn't get this kind of reaction. Is is that fair? Because honestly, we're not talking about this visit in the
same sense that we were. And that also has got to do with her role to she is a higher ranking official. She did raise that issue, and it isn't a very interesting point from her. Um, you know, does it have anything to do with the fact she's a woman. Very difficult to say, as you say, because she is also you know, a much higher ranking US figure than you know, any men that have come before. So difficult to say, but you know, you obviously you can't rule
out that possibility. Let's talk as well about I guess what we're seeing with some of the other moves. Because Taiwan detected twenty two p l A warplanes and six warships around the island surrounding region. This is up until five pm stunding Sunday, according to a tweet from the Ministry of National Defense. So certainly China here is still trying to stand its ground, right they are, And that's
that's one of the trends we're noticing now. Following Pelosi's trip, you know, in the days preceding her or following her trip, we you know, we saw these massive military exercises completely surrounding Taiwan um and then that seems to have settled down now into you know, what were people are calling a new normal where there are you know, many more Chinese patrols around Taiwan, many more Chinese encroachments into Taiwan's air Defense Identification Zone and p l A aircraft no
longer respecting the median line of the Taiwan Strait, which for decades previous had kind of stood as an informal tacit barrier between the two sides. Sam, You've just come from Taiwan to Singapore. I mean when we spoke to you a couple of weeks ago, you were saying on the ground, look, people are not really that focused on this, but very much we are in the global community talking about what's happening with with US China relations and and
the impact to Taiwan. Here, what is it like from people in Taiwan if you've got these twenty two p l A warplanes circling around, are people worried? Or are they getting about their daily business? Now? Again, it barely registers in Taipei. You know, people will freely tell you we're used to this. This happens all the time. We've had this threat hanging over our heads for the past seventy years. Um, you know, we'll we'll start worrying when
when when the missile start falling? And so far they haven't. Um. So yeah, people in Taiwan very resilient. But then also, you know, have become pretty much inured to this, these constant threats. And I think they also recognize that, you know, a full out war it would be disastrous for Taiwan. It would also be disastrous for China. Right China does not want a war at this point, you know, it would be Um. You know, China has its own issues. You know, if you look at you know, economic growth,
slowing economic growth, there, the constant COVID lockdowns. Ji Jinping is obviously Laser focused on the Party Congress that the later this year, when he, you know, is pushing to secure a third term, a full out war with Taiwan, in which you could pretty much assume the United States would intervene as well, and then there's obviously the possibility that the Japanese would intervene, and then other allies in
the region, possibly the Australians too, would get involved. You know, that would be utterly disastrous for everyone, but also obviously for Beijing. And just very quickly, let's the budging fund flows that we're seeing in some of these markets because these troubles in Taiwan, you're still seeing Chinese stocks at a wide discount to global peers. What do you see in terms of say, like the Taiwan dollar. Assets in
Taiwan have been remarkably resilient. To be honest, again, you know, there was this assumption that this would be bad for Taiwan, that you'll see massive equity outflows, which would of course have a knock on effect on on the Taiwan dollar. But other than a little bit of volatility the week when Pelosi was here, we absolutely haven't seen that. But part of that is the government has intervened. You know the government has various funds that it can use to
shore up both equities and the Taiwan dollar. But I think you know, all of these moves were flagged well in advanced by China, and so it did take any Sampson Ellis Bloomberg type had EUERA chief with us in Singapore. This is Bloomberg