A toughly worded Global Times (July 20) article by Zhou Wenxing, a research fellow at Shang Dao Institute for Social Research who holds a doctorate in Public Administration from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and was Asia Fellow at Harvard University, said Taiwan's 36th annual 'Han Kuang' military exercise, which began on July 13 and is based on the scenario of an "invasion" by the mainland military reveals the US role behind the island's display of its military power.  It said under the leadership of the "independence-leaning" Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Taiwan's refusal to accept the one-China principle and its rejection of Beijing's reunification efforts have gained growing support from Washington. Since US President Donald Trump took office in 2017, the US has been increasingly improving its political and particularly military relations with the island of Taiwan as seen with the Trump administration's approval of its seventh deal of arms sales to Taiwan earlier this month and increased frequency of US warships sailing through the Taiwan Straits.  The US Congress too, it noted, has introduced more than 50 Taiwan-related bills and resolutions in the past three and half years of which six have been enacted namely: the Taiwan Travel Act, Asia Reassurance Initiative Act of 2018, Taiwan Allies International Protection and Enhancement Initiative (TAIPEI) Act of 2019, and three National Defense Authorization Acts for the fiscal year 2018-2021. It added that US's pro-Taiwan policy has affected party politics in Taiwan and consolidated Tsai Ing-wen's power and that of her party while undermining the mainland-friendly Kuomintang's (KMT) political power base on the other.  It stated in conclusion that further US intervention in the Taiwan question "will encourage the Taipei authorities and separatists to take more aggressive actions. These trends have led to the deterioration of political and security situations across the Taiwan Straits".