SEOUL — Both Communist China and Speaker Pelosi are scoring points on Taiwan.

The Chinese showed they could surround the island with military exercises that were more a show of force or intimidation than a serious threat. Mrs. Pelosi, hosted by Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, displayed America’s solidarity with the island democracy regardless of communist protests.

Who will come out ahead in the war of wills glimpsed on Wednesday is unclear. All that seems obvious is that the Communist regime at Beijing is likely to intensify its claims to Taiwan.

The difficulty the Chinese communists have is that they have no democratic mandate or consent of the governed, either on the mainland or on Taiwan. They have never ruled the island since Mao’s Red Army came to power in 1949, and America’s commitment to defend Taiwan appears stronger than ever.

The Republic of China, as the government on Taiwan is known, also made its own point. Its defense ministry said the Communist Chinese exercises, from six sides of the island, were in effect a “maritime and aerial blockade.” The drills, said the ministry, endangered regional security, challenged the international order, and threatened the international waterway.

The statement, though, did not accuse the Communist Chinese of going beyond raising the specter of what the regime might really do were the standoff ever to come to blows. The communists did fire some shots, maybe missiles, but they were all part of the exercise, no harm done on land or sea. The inference was: Watch out, next time we’ll get you for real.

Symbolism of a different sort was just as apparent on Speaker Pelosi’s side. Accepting a ribbon from Ms. Tsai as a reward for America’s “strong and enduring friendship,” Mrs. Pelosi responded in kind. “The world faces a choice between democracy and autocracy,” she said. “We will not abandon our commitment to Taiwan.”

She spoke with the broad blue ribbon draped over her shoulder. The highest honor a civilian can receive on Taiwan, it made her a member of “the Order of Propitious Clouds with Special Grand Cordon” — possibly the most colorful quote of the day.

Mrs. Pelosi’s words resonated with Taiwan’s top leaders and many of its legislators, despite demonstrations demanding she “go home” along with posters showing unflattering caricatures and the words, “Ugly American.”

Mrs. Pelosi visited Taiwan’s National Human Rights Museum, which has nothing to do with human rights on the mainland. Rather, it’s a reminder of Taiwan’s struggle in the era when the island until 1992 was governed under martial law before emerging as a democracy.

“We heard from civil society leaders on human rights,” she tweeted. “We came to listen & learn; we left inspired by their courage.”

Actually, those seriously opposed to her visit were in a minority. A member of a minor party in Taiwan’s parliament, Jerry Liu, reflected the prevailing view when he said, “It’s very important to welcome her.”

Mostly, however, Mrs. Pelosi’s visit was shrugged off as she went through the day saying all the right things before taking off in the evening for her next destination, South Korea. One Taiwanese said people had “more important things to do” than pay much attention to a visiting American celebrity.

Whatever Ms. Pelosi did in Taiwan, it was against the background noise of denunciations of all sorts from the Chinese. China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, went into rhetorical overdrive, warning Washington “should not fantasize about distorting facts at will,” and accusing America of having “provoked China on the Taiwan question and blatantly violated China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

He seemed to be reaching for ever more ways of attacking Washington without getting down to specifics. Finally, all he could think of to say was that it was “very dangerous and stupid” for Washington to have introduced Taiwan into its “regional strategy.”

The empty nature of such rhetoric was echoed by the obvious fact that Communist China’s warships, lurking just on the edge of Taiwan’s territorial waters, were not going to war. Nor, so far, were they showing signs of seizing vessels, much less firing on any of them.

As Mrs. Pelosi and her entourage, including five other members of Congress, flew in the evening to South Korea, an abiding question was how long Communist China would go on with its military exercises. The betting was they would last a few days before her visit receded into the history of Communist China’s claims to the island, to which Chiang Kai-shek had led his defeated army in 1949.

In Korea, another vibrant democracy, Ms. Pelosi was assured of a non-controversial meeting with leaders of the National Assembly. President Yoon, caught between Korea’s need for decent relations with Communist China, its biggest trading partner, and its alliance with Washington, would not be seeing her. He had chosen the week to be “on vacation,” a spokesman said.