In a blatant move that is sure to rub more salt into the wounds of Sino-US relations, a group of US lawmakers visited Taiwan on Tuesday, arriving on a US military plane. The US government should not indulge in the dream that its repeated provocations over the Taiwan question will force China to back off from its determination to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The trip, dubbed by Pentagon spokesman John Kirby as "not uncommon", immediately met with strong opposition from the Chinese side as it is a serious violation of the one-China principle, under which the United States should not conduct any official exchange or military contact with the Chinese island.

This is not the first time that the US has challenged this redline. To serve the needs of its strategic competition with Beijing, Washington has increasingly played the "Taiwan card" to disrupt the Chinese mainland's reunification efforts and contain its development, and pushing the envelope on official contacts with the Chinese island is just one of the tricks the US is playing in this regard.

Apart from sending high-profile politicians to visit the Chinese island, the US has frequently sent warships to sail through the Taiwan Straits in recent years, and played up the so-called Taiwan participation in the World Health Organization and even the United Nations.

These moves have not only stoked tensions in the Taiwan Straits but also emboldened separatists on the Chinese island to walk even further along the road of "Taiwan independence". The US has become the main destabilizer in the Taiwan Straits and the region at large.

Washington should not underestimate Beijing's resolve and capabilities to safeguard China's sovereignty and territorial integrity. It is also dangerous to believe that the People's Liberation Army will sit idle if the situation calls for it to act.

After the latest US provocation, the Ministry of National Defense issued a stern warning, reiterating that the PLA remains on high alert and will take every necessary measure to counter any attempt to assert "Taiwan independence".

The PLA Eastern Theater Command also said in a statement late on Tuesday that it has organized a combat readiness patrol to improve its joint combat capabilities.

It is only a matter of time before the country achieves reunification, a historic trend that nobody can stop. What the island's Democratic Progressive Party authorities want most is an unambiguous guarantee of US military support for Taiwan's secession. But Washington will not abandon what it perceives to be the advantages of its "strategic ambiguity".

No matter what it may say, the US' only concern is to look after number one. Washington seems to believe that using Taiwan as a means to keep Beijing preoccupied serves that purpose. But whether it feels the same about the US being pushed into a precipitous clash with the Chinese mainland by warmongering delusionists on the island is debatable.