Tsai on a blind Hummer ride into the night

Editor's note: The United States has led the Taiwan administration of Tsai Ing-wen off the right track in handling the island's ties with the Chinese mainland, Liu Kuangyu, a researcher of Taiwan studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, commented in his column for the Voice of China on Tuesday. Excerpts:

The Donald Trump administration is playing the "Taiwan" card so as to divert domestic attention overseas and relieve some of the pressure on it before the midterm elections.

But it is also part of its so-called Indo-Pacific Strategy. The US has transformed its "engagement-containment" approach toward China to a more aggressive one featuring political counterbalancing, regulatory restrictions, diplomatic containment, high economic pressure and military coercion.