I still don't see the benefit of Nancy Pelosi's Asian jaunt, except for their own political purposes.

China has to huff and puff as it usual does, lest it be seen as a paper tiger who is powerless to do anything but talk when a second-tier politician like Nancy Pelosi comes in to stir the pot.

Carrying out live-fire exercises is thus to be expected. This time, China's doing it nearer to Taiwan's coast than it did in the 1995/96 Taiwan Strait Crisis to show that it means business and will escalate. The other benefit China gets is that it can game out what would happen in the event it does have to go all the way.

Still, China doesn't want to go all the way (if it doesn't have to), and Taiwan won't want to goad China into going all the way. On this issue, I think more rational heads in China and Taiwan can agree that Nancy Pelosi's move was unnecessarily provocative.

But, of course, international relations is also very much about theatre and posture, so everyone needs to play their parts.