Republican Governor Eric Holcomb of Indiana on Sunday announced that he had arrived in Taiwan, CNN reported. He was the latest US official to visit the island, after Pelosi and another delegation of US lawmakers who made a sneaky visit to Taiwan just last Sunday.

Holcomb's visit is apparently a toxic sequel following the visit made by Pelosi, who encouraged US politicians to believe that since her visit has intensified the tensions across the Taiwan Straits, others can exploit such tensions to achieve their personal political gains and show their presence, Lü Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Sunday. 

Lü said that there is a history of US governors visiting the island, yet the current visit seems more likely to exploit the current tensions and using Taiwan as a pawn  He said that the Holcomb's visit will surely invite themselves China's stern sanction and response. 

Taiwan's defense authority said it had detected five vessels and 12 PLA aircraft around the Taiwan Straits until 5 pm on Sunday.

Experts believe that ahead of the US midterms, more US officials might play this "card," increasing and tightening the tensions in this region. Yet they stressed that China will definitely impose sanctions on the visiting officials as a countermeasure, as the country has always been firmly opposed to any collusion between the US and the Taiwan secessionists.  

No forces should ever underestimate China's determination to safeguard its national sovereignty and territorial integrity, analysts said, warning anyone against stirring up trouble.

After the US congressional delegation's visit on August 14, China's Ministry of National Defense spokesperson Wu Qian said one day later that the joint combat exercises and trainings conducted by the PLA Eastern Theater Command in the sea areas and airspace around the island are a resolute response and a solemn deterrent to US-Taiwan collusion and the provocations. 

Lü said that after Pelosi's provocative visit, China has been upping the ante of strengthening its posture, "when the US move crosses the redline, we can take whatever measures that are necessary, that's what matters now."

China has its own pace in solving the Taiwan question and will not be changed by US politicians who want to showboat by visiting the island of Taiwan. For us now, it is to perfect the already normalized measures across the Taiwan Straits, and to take actions whenever possible, said Lü. He noted that now China should prepare for the possibility that the moment of solving the Taiwan question is getting more and more close.