It was like scenes from a war over a sophisticated topography dubbed “Joint Sword” by Beijing: a mock invasion on Taiwan by Communist China – a “stern warning” about “provocations of the ‘Taiwanese independence’ separatist forces and external forces,” said Col. Shi Yi on the sea and air drills.
In the footage a Taiwanese sailor can be heard telling the Chinese ship through a radio: “You are seriously harming regional peace, stability and security. Please immediately turn around and leave. If you continue to proceed we will take expulsion measures.”
China began three days of military “war games” around Taiwan after the island’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, met April 5 with Speaker Kevin McCarthy, in a show of Taiwanese-U.S. solidarity.
As the New York Times reported, “The People’s Liberation Army said it was holding air and sea ‘combat readiness’ patrols and drills on all four sides of Taiwan, including the strait between the island and China, in what appeared to be a concerted burst of retaliation over [the Tsai-McCarthy] meeting in California on Wednesday.
“The authorities also announced a live-fire exercise on waters near Pingtan, an island just off the Chinese coast facing Taiwan. Additionally, Taiwan’s defense ministry said that on Saturday morning China sent 42 military aircraft into the skies around the island, including 29 that crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait, an informal boundary between the two sides.”
On Sunday, China simulated precision strikes against key targets on Taiwan and its surrounding waters. Taiwan said about 70 Chinese aircraft flew around the island. Eleven Chinese ships were also spotted.
China calls Taiwan, an independent democracy of 23 million people, part of its territory and claims the island must accept eventual unification by force or coercion. Communist China’s President Xi said the exercises were “necessary to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Reported the Times: “China’s display of military force had echoes of August, when the previous speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, visited Taipei and met President Tsai in a show of solidarity. But China’s response this time appeared – initially, at least – to be more limited than the one after Pelosi’s visit. Last year, Beijing fired missiles into waters around Taiwan and held days of exercises simulating a blockade of the island.”
“This, of course, is very clearly a response to the Tsai-McCarthy meeting,” Shu Hsiao-huang, a researcher at the Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a government-funded body in Taipei, said of China’s latest military activities around Taiwan. “It looks like they will not be as intense as last year, but still they’ll be stronger than usual,” he said. “Of course, the possibility of additional actions can’t be excluded, but I’d guess that they will not go beyond this scope.”
President Tsai’s meeting with McCarthy was the highest-level political reception that a Taiwanese president has received in the United States since Washington shifted diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979. That recognition was orchestrated by Jimmy Carter, the one-term president who was beaten by Ronald Reagan in 1980.
At Wednesday’s meeting in California, Tsai thanked Speaker McCarthy for America’s “unwavering support,” saying it helped “reassure the people of Taiwan that we are not isolated and we are not alone.”
Joe Biden has said that the U.S. would back Taiwan if attacked by China, but that was likely a gaffe as he was speaking to a press conference.
Meanwhile, China continues to prepare for war, boosting its military spending to go head-to-head against the U.S. should it intervene in a war with Taiwan – a smaller, well-developed free state with a much smaller population.
“China’s latest drills are part of its long-term effort to convince Taiwanese people that unification under Beijing is inevitable, and to warn them that steps toward formal independence could lead to war,” the Times reported.
“The Chinese military Eastern Theater Command said that the exercises would involve frigates, missile-launching boats, fighter jets, bombers and other weaponry. Their focus was to hone skills in ‘seizing sea, air and information dominance,’ the Eastern Theater Command said on Weibo, a Chinese social media service. Its announcement was accompanied by a video, apparently shot earlier and set to stirring music, showing Chinese troops, naval ships and warplanes scrambling into action.”
Taiwan currently controls about 90% of the strategic silicon chips produced in the global market. That’s a secondary goal for China: to take Taiwan before the 2024 election in the U.S. when President Donald Trump is running against the hapless Biden.
In Taiwan’s capital, Taipei, residents seemed unperturbed by China’s latest maneuvers.
“I think many Taiwanese have gotten used to it by now, the feeling is like, here we go again!” Jim Tsai said on Saturday.
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