THE visit to Taiwan by the speaker of the Parliament of Representatives Nancy Pelosi has angered Beijing and exposed the deliberately vague concept of “strategic ambiguity” that has governed US policy toward Taiwan for decades. In fact, relations between Washington, Beijing and Taipei resemble a constant game military and diplomatic balance. Historical bitterness The political and ideological rift that separates the Beijing and Taipei dates back to the Chinese Civil War, which broke out in 1927 between the Nationalist forces of the Kuomintang (KMT) and armed groups supporting the Communist Party. In 1949, defeated by the communists they Mao Zedong,...