WAR CHINA THREATENS TO INVADE TAIWAN
- Thread starter danielboon
- Start date
Well now, so that can be interpreted as Beijing playing The Degüello and raising the Black Flag. Careful what you call for.....
ETA: AFP article......
Posted for fair use.....
China to hold Taiwan independence supporters criminally liable
Taiwan’s Premier Su Tseng-chang, parliament Speaker You Si-kun and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu included on the blacklist.
China to hold Taiwan independence supporters criminally liable
Taiwan’s Premier Su Tseng-chang, parliament Speaker You Si-kun and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu are among those on the blacklist.
5 Nov 2021
China will make people who support Taiwan independence criminally liable for life, according to a spokeswoman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, amid heightened tensions between Beijing and Taipei.
On Friday, the Taiwan Affairs Office in Beijing warned that “the mainland will pursue criminal responsibility for Taiwan independence diehards in accordance with the law, to be effective for life”.
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This is the first time that China has spelt out concretely the punishment for people deemed to be pro-Taiwan independence.
China claims Taiwan as its territory – to be seized one day, by force if necessary – and has intensified efforts in recent years to isolate the self-ruled island on the international stage.
The office on Friday named Taiwan’s Premier Su Tseng-chang, parliament Speaker You Si-kun and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu as people who are “stubbornly pro-Taiwan independence”, and made public for the first time it has drawn up a list of people who fall into this category.
China will enforce punishment on the people on the list, by not letting them enter the mainland and China’s Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau said spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian in a statement on Friday.
The blacklisted people will not be allowed to cooperate with entities or people from the mainland, nor will their companies or entities who fund them be allowed to profit from the mainland, she said.
Donations
Taiwanese politicians partially rely on donations from companies to fund their election campaigns.
Many Taiwanese companies derive profits from doing business with the mainland. Tens of thousands of Taiwanese currently work in the mainland.
China will also take “any other necessary measures” against these people, Zhu said.
She said the message China wants to send to supporters of Taiwan independence is: “Those who forget their ancestors, betray the motherland and split the country, will never end up well and will be spurned by the people and judged by history.”
Last edited:
northern watch
TB Fanatic
China's advice to stockpile sparks speculation of Taiwan war
A seemingly innocuous government notice encouraging Chinese people to store necessities for a potential emergency sparked panic-buying and online speculation almost immediately: Is China going to war with Taiwan
By KEN MORITSUGU Associated Press
4 November 2021, 03:30
BEIJING -- A seemingly innocuous government recommendation for Chinese people to store necessities for an emergency quickly sparked scattered instances of panic-buying and online speculation: Is China going to war with Taiwan?
The answer is probably not — most analysts think military hostilities are not imminent — but the posts on social media show the possibility is on people’s minds and drew out a flurry of war-mongering comments.
Taiwan is a self-governing island of 24 million people China regards as a renegade province that should come under its rule. Tensions have risen sharply recently, with China sending a growing number of warplanes on sorties near the island and the U.S. selling arms to Taiwan and deepening its ties with the government.
Most residents interviewed in Beijing, the Chinese capital, thought war was unlikely but acknowledged the rising tensions. They generally favored bringing Taiwan under Chinese rule by peaceful means, the official position of China's long-ruling Communist Party.
“I don’t feel panic but I think we should be more alert about this than in the past,” said Hu Chunmei, who was taking a neighborhood walk.
War fears or not, there were scattered reports of runs on rice, noodles and cooking oil in some Chinese cities, according to local media. The more immediate worry for some was the possibility of neighborhood lockdowns as a COVID-19 outbreak spreads in several provinces.
The government moved quickly to try to tamp down fears with assurances of sufficient supplies. A bright yellow sign in an aisle of a Beijing supermarket asked customers to buy reasonably and not to listen to rumors or stockpile goods.
The online speculation started with a Commerce Ministry notice posted Monday evening about a plan to ensure the supply and stable price of vegetables and other necessities for the winter and spring. A line in it encouraged families to store some necessities for daily life and emergencies.
That was enough to set off some hoarding and a discussion on social media that the ministry could be signaling people should stock up for war.
China's state media has covered the rising tensions with Taiwan heavily, including the often-tough words exchanged between China on one side and the U.S. and Taiwan on the other.
“It is natural to have aroused some imagination,” social commentator Shi Shusi said. “We should believe the government’s explanations, but the underlying anxiety deserves our thought.”
He said the populist views cheerleading for war don't represent majority opinion but do send a signal or warning to Taiwan.
Other developments fueled the war speculation. One person shared a screenshot of a list of recommended emergency equipment for families issued in August by the government in Xiamen, a coastal city near an outlying Taiwanese island. An unverified report — denied Wednesday by a military-affiliated social media account — said veterans were being called back to service to prepare for combat.
It's difficult to gauge how many people interpreted the notice as a possible prelude to war, but the reaction was strong enough to prompt a state media response the next day.
The Economic Daily, a government-owned newspaper, said people's imagination shouldn't run so wild, explaining that the advice was meant for people who may find themselves suddenly locked down because of a COVID-19 outbreak.
Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of the Global Times newspaper, blamed the the online speculation on the amplification of public opinion during a time of tension.
“I do not believe that the country wants to send a signal to the public at this time through a notice from the Commerce Ministry that people need to ‘hurry up and prepare for war,’" he wrote.
Zhang Xi, another Beijing resident, ruled out the possibility of war and counseled patience in a dispute extending to when Taiwan and China split during the civil war that brought Mao Zedong's Communists to power in 1949.
“This is a leftover from history, and it’s impossible to solve this right away," she said.
———
Associated Press researcher Yu Bing, video producers Olivia Zhang and Caroline Chen and photographer Ng Han Guan contributed to this report.
China's advice to stockpile sparks speculation of Taiwan war - ABC News (go.com)
A seemingly innocuous government notice encouraging Chinese people to store necessities for a potential emergency sparked panic-buying and online speculation almost immediately: Is China going to war with Taiwan
By KEN MORITSUGU Associated Press
4 November 2021, 03:30
BEIJING -- A seemingly innocuous government recommendation for Chinese people to store necessities for an emergency quickly sparked scattered instances of panic-buying and online speculation: Is China going to war with Taiwan?
The answer is probably not — most analysts think military hostilities are not imminent — but the posts on social media show the possibility is on people’s minds and drew out a flurry of war-mongering comments.
Taiwan is a self-governing island of 24 million people China regards as a renegade province that should come under its rule. Tensions have risen sharply recently, with China sending a growing number of warplanes on sorties near the island and the U.S. selling arms to Taiwan and deepening its ties with the government.
Most residents interviewed in Beijing, the Chinese capital, thought war was unlikely but acknowledged the rising tensions. They generally favored bringing Taiwan under Chinese rule by peaceful means, the official position of China's long-ruling Communist Party.
“I don’t feel panic but I think we should be more alert about this than in the past,” said Hu Chunmei, who was taking a neighborhood walk.
War fears or not, there were scattered reports of runs on rice, noodles and cooking oil in some Chinese cities, according to local media. The more immediate worry for some was the possibility of neighborhood lockdowns as a COVID-19 outbreak spreads in several provinces.
The government moved quickly to try to tamp down fears with assurances of sufficient supplies. A bright yellow sign in an aisle of a Beijing supermarket asked customers to buy reasonably and not to listen to rumors or stockpile goods.
The online speculation started with a Commerce Ministry notice posted Monday evening about a plan to ensure the supply and stable price of vegetables and other necessities for the winter and spring. A line in it encouraged families to store some necessities for daily life and emergencies.
That was enough to set off some hoarding and a discussion on social media that the ministry could be signaling people should stock up for war.
China's state media has covered the rising tensions with Taiwan heavily, including the often-tough words exchanged between China on one side and the U.S. and Taiwan on the other.
“It is natural to have aroused some imagination,” social commentator Shi Shusi said. “We should believe the government’s explanations, but the underlying anxiety deserves our thought.”
He said the populist views cheerleading for war don't represent majority opinion but do send a signal or warning to Taiwan.
Other developments fueled the war speculation. One person shared a screenshot of a list of recommended emergency equipment for families issued in August by the government in Xiamen, a coastal city near an outlying Taiwanese island. An unverified report — denied Wednesday by a military-affiliated social media account — said veterans were being called back to service to prepare for combat.
It's difficult to gauge how many people interpreted the notice as a possible prelude to war, but the reaction was strong enough to prompt a state media response the next day.
The Economic Daily, a government-owned newspaper, said people's imagination shouldn't run so wild, explaining that the advice was meant for people who may find themselves suddenly locked down because of a COVID-19 outbreak.
Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of the Global Times newspaper, blamed the the online speculation on the amplification of public opinion during a time of tension.
“I do not believe that the country wants to send a signal to the public at this time through a notice from the Commerce Ministry that people need to ‘hurry up and prepare for war,’" he wrote.
Zhang Xi, another Beijing resident, ruled out the possibility of war and counseled patience in a dispute extending to when Taiwan and China split during the civil war that brought Mao Zedong's Communists to power in 1949.
“This is a leftover from history, and it’s impossible to solve this right away," she said.
———
Associated Press researcher Yu Bing, video producers Olivia Zhang and Caroline Chen and photographer Ng Han Guan contributed to this report.
China's advice to stockpile sparks speculation of Taiwan war - ABC News (go.com)
northern watch
TB Fanatic
northern watch
TB Fanatic
jward
passin' thru
T-Day: The Battle for Taiwan
By David Lague and Maryanne Murray
9-11 minutes
China’s quest to rule Taiwan has already begun with a campaign of “gray-zone” warfare. Here is how military strategists believe the struggle might play out.
Seventy-two years ago, the Communist Party seized control of China after a bloody struggle. The defeated Nationalist government fled to Taiwan, frustrating Beijing's desire to capture the island. Since then, China has arisen as a superpower rivaling America; Taiwan has blossomed into a self-governing democracy and high-tech powerhouse with Washington's backing. Now, after decades of tenuous stalemate, there is a renewed risk of conflict. While it is impossible to know how this long rivalry will play out, in some respects the battle for Taiwan is already underway.
As Reuters reported in December, the Chinese military – the People’s Liberation Army – is waging so-called gray-zone warfare against Taiwan. This consists of an almost daily campaign of intimidating military exercises, patrols and surveillance that falls just short of armed conflict. Since that report, the campaign has intensified, with Beijing stepping up the number of warplanes it is sending into the airspace around Taiwan. China has also used sand dredgers to swarm Taiwan’s outlying islands.
Military strategists tell Reuters that the gray-zone strategy has the potential to grind down Taipei’s resistance – but also that it may fall short, or even backfire by strengthening the island’s resolve. They are also envisioning starker futures. While they can’t predict the future, military planners in China, Taiwan, the United States, Japan and Australia are nonetheless actively gaming out scenarios for how Beijing might try to seize the prized island, and how Taiwan and America, along with its allies, might move to stop it.
China has a range of tactics it might adopt, military experts say. They all carry risk for President Xi Jinping and his ruling Communist Party. They also pose different challenges for Taiwan and for the United States and its allies, principally Japan. Xi’s options include seizing Taiwan’s outlying islands, blockades or all-out invasion. Some Taiwanese military experts say Beijing's next step might be to seize the lightly defended and remote Pratas Islands in the north of the South China Sea. Any of these moves could spin out of control into war between China and America over Taiwan.
This report examines some of the conflict scenarios. It is based on interviews with close to a dozen military strategists and 15 current and former military officers from Taiwan, the United States, Australia and Japan. Some serving officers spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity. The report also draws on articles in U.S., Chinese and Taiwanese military and professional journals and official publications. In places, we have provided links to published articles and documents that shed light on Chinese, Taiwanese and U.S. thinking.
These scenarios are, by their very nature, speculative. They are not predictions by Reuters of events to come. There is no certainty that real conflict would follow any of these trajectories. And hostilities may not erupt at all. But with tensions high, accident or miscalculation could become a catalyst for clashes at any time.
“For all sides the stakes are enormous,” said Ian Easton, a senior director of the Project 2049 Institute in Arlington, Virginia, and author of “The Chinese Invasion Threat,” a 2017 book which lays out the challenges the PLA faces in mounting an invasion and how Taiwan might respond. “A life and death game is underway, and none of the players have any way of knowing how it will end.”
A China foreign ministry spokesperson said the ministry would not comment on “hypothetical reports.” But the spokesperson added that the ruling party in Taiwan and ‘“Taiwan independence’ elements, in collusion with external forces, are constantly engaging in provocations by seeking ‘independence,’ which is the root cause of the current tense and turbulent situation in the Taiwan Strait.”
Today, under Xi Jinping, China is flashing impatience with Taiwan’s unwillingness to submit to Beijing’s rule. Xi says China’s aim is peaceful unification, but has pointedly refused to rule out the use of force.
Chinese control of Taiwan would dramatically reinforce the Communist Party’s prestige at home and eliminate the island as a viable model of a democratic alternative to authoritarian Party rule. It would also give China a foothold in the so-called first island chain, the line which runs through the string of islands from the Japanese archipelago to Taiwan, the Philippines and Borneo, which enclose China’s coastal seas.
For Beijing, success would translate into a commanding strategic position in Asia, undermining the security of Japan and South Korea, and allowing China to project power into the Western Pacific. But Beijing also has an incentive to be cautious: If America and its allies intervened against a takeover attempt, they could inflict heavy losses on an untested Chinese military that has not fired a shot in anger for decades. Defeat could weaken the Party’s hold on power.
For the American alliance, a Chinese takeover of Taiwan would be a devastating blow. At a stroke, the United States would lose its status as the pre-eminent power in Asia, according to most U.S. and regional military experts. If America were unwilling or unable to defend Taiwan, its network of allies in the Asia-Pacific – including Tokyo, Seoul and Canberra – would overnight be far more vulnerable to military and economic coercion from China. Some might switch allegiance to Beijing, analysts say. Some might seek nuclear weapons to boost their own security.
If America did opt to defend the island, though, there is no guarantee it would defeat an increasingly powerful PLA, according to current and former senior U.S. commanders. To counter China’s military rise, the United States is now rolling out new weapons and strategy in the Asia-Pacific.
There are indications America’s stance may be stiffening. Asked last month if the United States would come to Taiwan’s defense if China launched an attack, President Joe Biden appeared to depart from the long-held U.S. policy of “strategic ambiguity” when he replied: “Yes, we have a commitment to do that.”
Lieutenant Colonel Martin Meiners, a spokesperson for the Pentagon, had no comment on “specific operations, engagements, or training” described in this report. But Meiners said that China had “stepped up efforts to intimidate and pressure Taiwan and other allies,” and this increases “the risk of miscalculation.”
For Japan, blocking China from gaining a foothold in its trade routes is vital. From Taiwan, the Chinese military could threaten Japan’s southern islands and dominate the sea lanes that carry its imports and exports. Top Japanese officials now publicly acknowledge Tokyo must assist the United States in defending Taiwan. Asked about the conflict scenarios, Japan’s defense ministry said it couldn’t comment “on hypothetical questions or speculation.”
In Taiwan, an overwhelming majority of the island’s 23.5 million people think of themselves as Taiwanese rather than Chinese and support closer economic and political ties with the United States, according to opinion polls and recent election outcomes. This sentiment has hardened as they watch Beijing’s ongoing crackdown in Hong Kong. President Tsai Ing-wen has repeatedly said Taiwan will defend its freedom and democratic way of life.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said in a statement that the island’s military had “drawn up relevant countermeasures and made various combat plans” regarding possible actions and attempts to invade Taiwan by the “Communist army.”
Xi has made one thing clear: Taiwan, he has said, “must be, will be” unified with China to realize his dream of a rejuvenated China, a nation that recaptures the position it held for centuries as a great Asian power.
Credits
Reporting and writing by David Lague
Design and animation by Maryanne Murray
Development and additional animation by Matthew Weber
Edited by Peter Hirschberg
Map sources
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (PLA flights into the ADIZ); ‘The Chinese Invasion Threat’ by Ian Easton (Taiwanese bases; Chinese amphibious attack force locations; invasion beaches); U.S. Dept. of Defense (Chinese and U.S. bases); Telegeography (undersea cables)
T-Day: The Battle for Taiwan
By David Lague and Maryanne Murray
9-11 minutes
China’s quest to rule Taiwan has already begun with a campaign of “gray-zone” warfare. Here is how military strategists believe the struggle might play out.
Seventy-two years ago, the Communist Party seized control of China after a bloody struggle. The defeated Nationalist government fled to Taiwan, frustrating Beijing's desire to capture the island. Since then, China has arisen as a superpower rivaling America; Taiwan has blossomed into a self-governing democracy and high-tech powerhouse with Washington's backing. Now, after decades of tenuous stalemate, there is a renewed risk of conflict. While it is impossible to know how this long rivalry will play out, in some respects the battle for Taiwan is already underway.
As Reuters reported in December, the Chinese military – the People’s Liberation Army – is waging so-called gray-zone warfare against Taiwan. This consists of an almost daily campaign of intimidating military exercises, patrols and surveillance that falls just short of armed conflict. Since that report, the campaign has intensified, with Beijing stepping up the number of warplanes it is sending into the airspace around Taiwan. China has also used sand dredgers to swarm Taiwan’s outlying islands.
Military strategists tell Reuters that the gray-zone strategy has the potential to grind down Taipei’s resistance – but also that it may fall short, or even backfire by strengthening the island’s resolve. They are also envisioning starker futures. While they can’t predict the future, military planners in China, Taiwan, the United States, Japan and Australia are nonetheless actively gaming out scenarios for how Beijing might try to seize the prized island, and how Taiwan and America, along with its allies, might move to stop it.
China has a range of tactics it might adopt, military experts say. They all carry risk for President Xi Jinping and his ruling Communist Party. They also pose different challenges for Taiwan and for the United States and its allies, principally Japan. Xi’s options include seizing Taiwan’s outlying islands, blockades or all-out invasion. Some Taiwanese military experts say Beijing's next step might be to seize the lightly defended and remote Pratas Islands in the north of the South China Sea. Any of these moves could spin out of control into war between China and America over Taiwan.
This report examines some of the conflict scenarios. It is based on interviews with close to a dozen military strategists and 15 current and former military officers from Taiwan, the United States, Australia and Japan. Some serving officers spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity. The report also draws on articles in U.S., Chinese and Taiwanese military and professional journals and official publications. In places, we have provided links to published articles and documents that shed light on Chinese, Taiwanese and U.S. thinking.
These scenarios are, by their very nature, speculative. They are not predictions by Reuters of events to come. There is no certainty that real conflict would follow any of these trajectories. And hostilities may not erupt at all. But with tensions high, accident or miscalculation could become a catalyst for clashes at any time.
“For all sides the stakes are enormous,” said Ian Easton, a senior director of the Project 2049 Institute in Arlington, Virginia, and author of “The Chinese Invasion Threat,” a 2017 book which lays out the challenges the PLA faces in mounting an invasion and how Taiwan might respond. “A life and death game is underway, and none of the players have any way of knowing how it will end.”
A China foreign ministry spokesperson said the ministry would not comment on “hypothetical reports.” But the spokesperson added that the ruling party in Taiwan and ‘“Taiwan independence’ elements, in collusion with external forces, are constantly engaging in provocations by seeking ‘independence,’ which is the root cause of the current tense and turbulent situation in the Taiwan Strait.”
Today, under Xi Jinping, China is flashing impatience with Taiwan’s unwillingness to submit to Beijing’s rule. Xi says China’s aim is peaceful unification, but has pointedly refused to rule out the use of force.
Chinese control of Taiwan would dramatically reinforce the Communist Party’s prestige at home and eliminate the island as a viable model of a democratic alternative to authoritarian Party rule. It would also give China a foothold in the so-called first island chain, the line which runs through the string of islands from the Japanese archipelago to Taiwan, the Philippines and Borneo, which enclose China’s coastal seas.
For Beijing, success would translate into a commanding strategic position in Asia, undermining the security of Japan and South Korea, and allowing China to project power into the Western Pacific. But Beijing also has an incentive to be cautious: If America and its allies intervened against a takeover attempt, they could inflict heavy losses on an untested Chinese military that has not fired a shot in anger for decades. Defeat could weaken the Party’s hold on power.
For the American alliance, a Chinese takeover of Taiwan would be a devastating blow. At a stroke, the United States would lose its status as the pre-eminent power in Asia, according to most U.S. and regional military experts. If America were unwilling or unable to defend Taiwan, its network of allies in the Asia-Pacific – including Tokyo, Seoul and Canberra – would overnight be far more vulnerable to military and economic coercion from China. Some might switch allegiance to Beijing, analysts say. Some might seek nuclear weapons to boost their own security.
If America did opt to defend the island, though, there is no guarantee it would defeat an increasingly powerful PLA, according to current and former senior U.S. commanders. To counter China’s military rise, the United States is now rolling out new weapons and strategy in the Asia-Pacific.
There are indications America’s stance may be stiffening. Asked last month if the United States would come to Taiwan’s defense if China launched an attack, President Joe Biden appeared to depart from the long-held U.S. policy of “strategic ambiguity” when he replied: “Yes, we have a commitment to do that.”
Lieutenant Colonel Martin Meiners, a spokesperson for the Pentagon, had no comment on “specific operations, engagements, or training” described in this report. But Meiners said that China had “stepped up efforts to intimidate and pressure Taiwan and other allies,” and this increases “the risk of miscalculation.”
For Japan, blocking China from gaining a foothold in its trade routes is vital. From Taiwan, the Chinese military could threaten Japan’s southern islands and dominate the sea lanes that carry its imports and exports. Top Japanese officials now publicly acknowledge Tokyo must assist the United States in defending Taiwan. Asked about the conflict scenarios, Japan’s defense ministry said it couldn’t comment “on hypothetical questions or speculation.”
In Taiwan, an overwhelming majority of the island’s 23.5 million people think of themselves as Taiwanese rather than Chinese and support closer economic and political ties with the United States, according to opinion polls and recent election outcomes. This sentiment has hardened as they watch Beijing’s ongoing crackdown in Hong Kong. President Tsai Ing-wen has repeatedly said Taiwan will defend its freedom and democratic way of life.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said in a statement that the island’s military had “drawn up relevant countermeasures and made various combat plans” regarding possible actions and attempts to invade Taiwan by the “Communist army.”
Xi has made one thing clear: Taiwan, he has said, “must be, will be” unified with China to realize his dream of a rejuvenated China, a nation that recaptures the position it held for centuries as a great Asian power.
Credits
Reporting and writing by David Lague
Design and animation by Maryanne Murray
Development and additional animation by Matthew Weber
Edited by Peter Hirschberg
Map sources
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (PLA flights into the ADIZ); ‘The Chinese Invasion Threat’ by Ian Easton (Taiwanese bases; Chinese amphibious attack force locations; invasion beaches); U.S. Dept. of Defense (Chinese and U.S. bases); Telegeography (undersea cables)
T-Day: The Battle for Taiwan
We should nuke China into the stone age, as they are clearly at war with us, and then "build back better".
Open war with the CCP is coming whether we like it or not.
Of course I'm pro America, not a bought off treasonous bastige like most all at the top levels of our installed regime.
Most likely, when push comes to shove, we'll let them take out our forces in theater and then just surrender.
The media will hail Beijing Biden's courage in saving the planet from nuclear destruction.
It's a close race between my cynicism and anger.
Open war with the CCP is coming whether we like it or not.
Of course I'm pro America, not a bought off treasonous bastige like most all at the top levels of our installed regime.
Most likely, when push comes to shove, we'll let them take out our forces in theater and then just surrender.
The media will hail Beijing Biden's courage in saving the planet from nuclear destruction.
It's a close race between my cynicism and anger.
A likely outcome of entering into that scenario would be a CoG "junta" of one variety or another.
jward
passin' thru
hmm...any country NOT rampin' up for war?
Xi expands wartime mobilization powers as Taiwan tensions rise
Rules allow swift recruitment of civilians, bypassing legislative procedures
Chinese soldiers practice marching in formation. Beijing is struggling to recruit members for the military. © Reuters
TSUKASA HADANO, Nikkei staff writerNovember 6, 2021 06:51 JST
BEIJING -- China has granted the central leadership under President Xi Jinping greater control over mobilization for national defense without having to go through time-consuming legislative processes.
asia.nikkei.com
Xi expands wartime mobilization powers as Taiwan tensions rise
Rules allow swift recruitment of civilians, bypassing legislative procedures
Chinese soldiers practice marching in formation. Beijing is struggling to recruit members for the military. © Reuters
TSUKASA HADANO, Nikkei staff writerNovember 6, 2021 06:51 JST
BEIJING -- China has granted the central leadership under President Xi Jinping greater control over mobilization for national defense without having to go through time-consuming legislative processes.
Xi expands wartime mobilization powers as Taiwan tensions rise
Rules allow swift recruitment of civilians, bypassing legislative procedures
asia.nikkei.com
jward
passin' thru
China State Media: 'Military Showdown Will Come' if Taiwan, U.S. Don't Change Course
Jason Lemon
4-5 minutes
As tensions persist between the U.S. and China over the future of Taiwan, Chinese state media has warned a "military showdown will come" and described the possible scenario as "a life-and-death struggle" between the nations.
The Global Times, which is published by the ruling Chinese Communist Party, shared the opinion article on Friday after U.S. military officials have increasingly warned about China's threat to Taiwan's autonomy. The editorial highlighted remarks from U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, who expressed concern this past week about the "rapid expansion" of China's navy.
Taiwan, an island nation, is claimed by China under its "one country, two systems" constitutional principle. However, the democratically-run East Asian country has operated with autonomy and the support of the U.S. for decades. In recent years, analysts have increasingly warned that Beijing could move militarily to take control of the island by force.
"We need to make the US aware that no matter what threats it poses or forces it uses, China's reunification will eventually happen. Setting stumbling blocks to reunification across the Straits would mean a fundamental confrontation," The Global Times editorial cautioned.
Chinese state media on Friday warned of a "military showdown" between the U.S. and China over Taiwan. Above, members of the Chinese military march on Tiananmen Square before a celebration marking the 100th founding anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party on July 1 in Beijing, China Lintao Zhang/Getty Images
Although the publication said that China is not interested in an "arms race" with the U.S., it asserted that Beijing is more than capable of fighting back against its rival nation.
"China's ability to overwhelm U.S. military intervention in this region is sufficiently guaranteed by its will and strategic resources," the editorial said.
"Any move to block China's reunification is doomed to result in a life-and-death struggle, which the US will have to fight while sacrificing the lives of Americans," the Chinese tabloid warned. "The struggle is definitely not something that can be resolved by pouring more money or imposing sanctions."
In conclusion, the opinion article asserted that "if the U.S. keeps encouraging Taiwan authorities to go their own way, a military showdown will come eventually. When that day comes, let a knock-down, drag-out fight decide everything."
The article comes as China announced on Friday that it will hold those promoting "Taiwan independence" criminally liable for life. That punishment would extend to many officials and leaders who currently govern Taiwan.
China's Taiwan Affairs Office specifically named Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang, Parliament Speaker You Si-kun, and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu as being "stubbornly pro-Taiwan independence." The Taiwanese leaders will be blacklisted from entering mainland China, and the administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao.
The Global Times editor-in-chief published a separate opinion article on Friday mocking Wu specifically, after he told Polish media that he would "pick up a weapon" and fight China himself if it ever attacked Taiwan.
"It is believed if a war breaks out, he must be one of the first 'elites' on the island to flee Taiwan and head toward the US or another Western country. People like him would have already made plans for their escape long, long ago," the publication's top editor, Hu Xijin, wrote.
Newsweek reached out to the State Department for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
www.newsweek.com
Jason Lemon
4-5 minutes
As tensions persist between the U.S. and China over the future of Taiwan, Chinese state media has warned a "military showdown will come" and described the possible scenario as "a life-and-death struggle" between the nations.
The Global Times, which is published by the ruling Chinese Communist Party, shared the opinion article on Friday after U.S. military officials have increasingly warned about China's threat to Taiwan's autonomy. The editorial highlighted remarks from U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, who expressed concern this past week about the "rapid expansion" of China's navy.
Taiwan, an island nation, is claimed by China under its "one country, two systems" constitutional principle. However, the democratically-run East Asian country has operated with autonomy and the support of the U.S. for decades. In recent years, analysts have increasingly warned that Beijing could move militarily to take control of the island by force.
"We need to make the US aware that no matter what threats it poses or forces it uses, China's reunification will eventually happen. Setting stumbling blocks to reunification across the Straits would mean a fundamental confrontation," The Global Times editorial cautioned.
Chinese state media on Friday warned of a "military showdown" between the U.S. and China over Taiwan. Above, members of the Chinese military march on Tiananmen Square before a celebration marking the 100th founding anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party on July 1 in Beijing, China Lintao Zhang/Getty Images
Although the publication said that China is not interested in an "arms race" with the U.S., it asserted that Beijing is more than capable of fighting back against its rival nation.
"China's ability to overwhelm U.S. military intervention in this region is sufficiently guaranteed by its will and strategic resources," the editorial said.
"Any move to block China's reunification is doomed to result in a life-and-death struggle, which the US will have to fight while sacrificing the lives of Americans," the Chinese tabloid warned. "The struggle is definitely not something that can be resolved by pouring more money or imposing sanctions."
In conclusion, the opinion article asserted that "if the U.S. keeps encouraging Taiwan authorities to go their own way, a military showdown will come eventually. When that day comes, let a knock-down, drag-out fight decide everything."
The article comes as China announced on Friday that it will hold those promoting "Taiwan independence" criminally liable for life. That punishment would extend to many officials and leaders who currently govern Taiwan.
China's Taiwan Affairs Office specifically named Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang, Parliament Speaker You Si-kun, and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu as being "stubbornly pro-Taiwan independence." The Taiwanese leaders will be blacklisted from entering mainland China, and the administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao.
The Global Times editor-in-chief published a separate opinion article on Friday mocking Wu specifically, after he told Polish media that he would "pick up a weapon" and fight China himself if it ever attacked Taiwan.
"It is believed if a war breaks out, he must be one of the first 'elites' on the island to flee Taiwan and head toward the US or another Western country. People like him would have already made plans for their escape long, long ago," the publication's top editor, Hu Xijin, wrote.
Newsweek reached out to the State Department for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
China State Media Warns 'Military Showdown Will Come' With U.S.
The Chinese Communist Party publication said tensions could lead to "a life-and-death struggle" forcing the U.S. to sacrifice "the lives of Americans."
www.newsweek.com
danielboon
TB Fanatic
War drawing closer every day
okie-carbine
Veteran Member
I guess I never really paid attention to the name of their newspaper. LOL The Global Times.
How come them gooks got such long necks?hmm...any country NOT rampin' up for war?
Xi expands wartime mobilization powers as Taiwan tensions rise
Rules allow swift recruitment of civilians, bypassing legislative procedures
Chinese soldiers practice marching in formation. Beijing is struggling to recruit members for the military. © Reuters
TSUKASA HADANO, Nikkei staff writerNovember 6, 2021 06:51 JST
BEIJING -- China has granted the central leadership under President Xi Jinping greater control over mobilization for national defense without having to go through time-consuming legislative processes.
Xi expands wartime mobilization powers as Taiwan tensions rise
Rules allow swift recruitment of civilians, bypassing legislative procedures
northern watch
TB Fanatic
The following story was posted on DW site in the spring of this year, I am not sure how much has changed since then.
Taiwan's army 'ill-prepared' for potential Chinese attack
Taiwanese civilians seem to be unfazed by the military pressure that Beijing is exerting. Military experts, on the other hand, are preoccupied and fear the armed forces are not ready to react.
DW
05.04.2021
A Taiwan air force pilot signals from a US-made f-5E tiger ii fighter jet before a training exercise
Those who have been following the news about China's threats toward Taiwan might be surprised to see how little visible impact the situation seems to be having on the everyday lives of the island's 23 million inhabitants.
It is business as usual in the cities, hectic moments alternating with calmer ones. Moreover, thanks to the fact that the authorities have dealt with the coronavirus in a very efficient manner, there is no physical distancing or lockdown.
There are also few uniforms on the streets, no regular drills or military exercises. It seems citizens trust that their government and army are well prepared or are otherwise confident that the situation will not escalate.
After all, the Taiwanese are used to living in the shadow of an ongoing latent conflict. Ever since the Chinese Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, lost the Chinese civil war and fled to Taiwan in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party has wanted to take control.
Deceptive calm
The calm could be deceptive. It is completely unclear what China is really planning and whether the US would intervene on Taiwan's behalf if necessary. China is arming itself and increasing the military pressure on Taipei. Last year, the Chinese air force ignored the Taiwan Strait median line, which acts as an unofficial dividing line, more often than it had in decades, with aircraft entering Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ) almost every third day. China claims Taiwan as its own territory.
"We are facing a gigantic military threat," said former Taiwanese Defense Minister Michael Tsai, who turned his back on the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in 2019. "Taiwan should strengthen its self-defense capabilities."
At the National People's Congress in March, mainland China's Communist rulers made clear how important Taiwan was for their strategy. Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that there was "no room for compromise or concessions" on the issue. He also warned that the US to stop "playing with fire."
At the moment, it seems as if US President Joe Biden, like his predecessor Donald Trump, will continue to support Taiwan, which is of major geostrategic importance in the Western Pacific region. When Chinese President Xi Jinping called on the People's Army to be ready for battle, the word "Taiwan" was not uttered - but the idea hung in the air.
Unlike on the Taiwanese main island, soldiers are a common sight on the Matsu islands
'Hollow shell'
The morale and training of the Taiwanese army will probably play a major role in determining whether Taiwan really is ready to defend itself in an emergency. But both in terms of troop numbers and modernization, Taiwan is well behind China, despite regular arms supplies worth billions from the US.
China's official military budget alone is 16 times that of Taiwan's. In terms of size, Taiwan's 170,000-strong army is comparable with that of Germany, which boasts three and a half times as many inhabitants. At sea, China definitely has the upper hand: It is in the process of building a third aircraft carrier while Taiwan has two operational submarines, which date back to the 1980s.
"Our national security needs every young man to go to the armed forces, this is a national obligation," said Tsai, who did his own 18-month stint of military service six decades ago. The army has played a much more limited role in Taiwan since martial law was lifted in 1987 and democracy was introduced. In 2016, military service, which young men usually complete after their studies, was shortened to four months, but Tsai does not think this is long enough. He told DW that Taiwan should take a cue from South Korea, Singapore and Israel, where military service lasts considerably more than a year.
Reforming the reserve
Wen Lii, director of the Matsu Islands chapter of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), was conscripted when he turned 24 in 2013. He served for a year and learned how to drive M60 tanks, which in the event of a Chinese invasion are supposed to repel Chinese troops on the beaches. Lii, who is now a reservist, said that there was no tactical combat training or maneuvers, however: His job was simply to teach new recruits how to drive.
"Today's technology and equipment is highly professionalized," said Lii. He said that it made sense for professional soldiers to play more of a role than conscripts. He explained that the army had become more attractive as a career in recent years. On the Matsu Islands, fortifications and soldiers are still omnipresent, even if they are fewer than during the Cold War.
All the more reason to train reservists regularly, he added. Taiwan officially has over 700,000 whose task would be to support the troops in case of war. However, few people have any illusions about their willingness to fight.
At the moment, reservists are called up every two years for a maximum of seven days, and often this is just on paper. Lii said that he had only been required to turn up twice, for one day. "Personally I wanted to spend longer time for training," he said, before welcoming the fact that the government wanted to reform the army reserve by introducing two weeks' training per year from 2022 onwards.
The journalist Paul Huang, a vocal critic of the current state of Taiwan's army, which he described in Foreign Policy magazine as a "hollow shell," believes that "Taiwan's military is in a crisis it can barely admit exists." Citing active and former soldiers, he found that the army's strength was only on paper and that equipment was often not satisfactory.
He told DW that the root of the problem lay with Taiwan's military culture and a tendency to ignore problems. He added that he followed similar discussions about the German army with interest. "The Bundeswehr at least knows about where to start fixing the problem," he said. "Taiwan's Ministry of Defense always says they have no problem whatsoever, everything is working, everything is fine. Even when reports surface that is not the case. They do not want to face the reality."
He attributed this to the fact that defense ministers in Taiwan were often generals and this led to problems of accountability.
"Most military leaders would not like civilians to be Minister of Defense," agreed Michael Tsai, who was a rare exception. The next civilian after him to become defense minister had to step down after less than a week in office after being accused of plagiarism.
However, he still believed that the army could be reformed if there was the necessary political will: Focus on reforming the military, restore civilian audit and control, that should be number one," he said. "Reform from the top down before thinking about what to throw money at."
Taiwan′s army ′ill-prepared′ for potential Chinese attack | Asia | An in-depth look at news from across the continent | DW | 05.04.2021
Taiwan's army 'ill-prepared' for potential Chinese attack
Taiwanese civilians seem to be unfazed by the military pressure that Beijing is exerting. Military experts, on the other hand, are preoccupied and fear the armed forces are not ready to react.
DW
05.04.2021
A Taiwan air force pilot signals from a US-made f-5E tiger ii fighter jet before a training exercise
Those who have been following the news about China's threats toward Taiwan might be surprised to see how little visible impact the situation seems to be having on the everyday lives of the island's 23 million inhabitants.
It is business as usual in the cities, hectic moments alternating with calmer ones. Moreover, thanks to the fact that the authorities have dealt with the coronavirus in a very efficient manner, there is no physical distancing or lockdown.
There are also few uniforms on the streets, no regular drills or military exercises. It seems citizens trust that their government and army are well prepared or are otherwise confident that the situation will not escalate.
After all, the Taiwanese are used to living in the shadow of an ongoing latent conflict. Ever since the Chinese Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, lost the Chinese civil war and fled to Taiwan in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party has wanted to take control.
Deceptive calm
The calm could be deceptive. It is completely unclear what China is really planning and whether the US would intervene on Taiwan's behalf if necessary. China is arming itself and increasing the military pressure on Taipei. Last year, the Chinese air force ignored the Taiwan Strait median line, which acts as an unofficial dividing line, more often than it had in decades, with aircraft entering Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ) almost every third day. China claims Taiwan as its own territory.
"We are facing a gigantic military threat," said former Taiwanese Defense Minister Michael Tsai, who turned his back on the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in 2019. "Taiwan should strengthen its self-defense capabilities."
At the National People's Congress in March, mainland China's Communist rulers made clear how important Taiwan was for their strategy. Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that there was "no room for compromise or concessions" on the issue. He also warned that the US to stop "playing with fire."
At the moment, it seems as if US President Joe Biden, like his predecessor Donald Trump, will continue to support Taiwan, which is of major geostrategic importance in the Western Pacific region. When Chinese President Xi Jinping called on the People's Army to be ready for battle, the word "Taiwan" was not uttered - but the idea hung in the air.
Unlike on the Taiwanese main island, soldiers are a common sight on the Matsu islands
'Hollow shell'
The morale and training of the Taiwanese army will probably play a major role in determining whether Taiwan really is ready to defend itself in an emergency. But both in terms of troop numbers and modernization, Taiwan is well behind China, despite regular arms supplies worth billions from the US.
China's official military budget alone is 16 times that of Taiwan's. In terms of size, Taiwan's 170,000-strong army is comparable with that of Germany, which boasts three and a half times as many inhabitants. At sea, China definitely has the upper hand: It is in the process of building a third aircraft carrier while Taiwan has two operational submarines, which date back to the 1980s.
"Our national security needs every young man to go to the armed forces, this is a national obligation," said Tsai, who did his own 18-month stint of military service six decades ago. The army has played a much more limited role in Taiwan since martial law was lifted in 1987 and democracy was introduced. In 2016, military service, which young men usually complete after their studies, was shortened to four months, but Tsai does not think this is long enough. He told DW that Taiwan should take a cue from South Korea, Singapore and Israel, where military service lasts considerably more than a year.
Reforming the reserve
Wen Lii, director of the Matsu Islands chapter of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), was conscripted when he turned 24 in 2013. He served for a year and learned how to drive M60 tanks, which in the event of a Chinese invasion are supposed to repel Chinese troops on the beaches. Lii, who is now a reservist, said that there was no tactical combat training or maneuvers, however: His job was simply to teach new recruits how to drive.
"Today's technology and equipment is highly professionalized," said Lii. He said that it made sense for professional soldiers to play more of a role than conscripts. He explained that the army had become more attractive as a career in recent years. On the Matsu Islands, fortifications and soldiers are still omnipresent, even if they are fewer than during the Cold War.
All the more reason to train reservists regularly, he added. Taiwan officially has over 700,000 whose task would be to support the troops in case of war. However, few people have any illusions about their willingness to fight.
At the moment, reservists are called up every two years for a maximum of seven days, and often this is just on paper. Lii said that he had only been required to turn up twice, for one day. "Personally I wanted to spend longer time for training," he said, before welcoming the fact that the government wanted to reform the army reserve by introducing two weeks' training per year from 2022 onwards.
The journalist Paul Huang, a vocal critic of the current state of Taiwan's army, which he described in Foreign Policy magazine as a "hollow shell," believes that "Taiwan's military is in a crisis it can barely admit exists." Citing active and former soldiers, he found that the army's strength was only on paper and that equipment was often not satisfactory.
He told DW that the root of the problem lay with Taiwan's military culture and a tendency to ignore problems. He added that he followed similar discussions about the German army with interest. "The Bundeswehr at least knows about where to start fixing the problem," he said. "Taiwan's Ministry of Defense always says they have no problem whatsoever, everything is working, everything is fine. Even when reports surface that is not the case. They do not want to face the reality."
He attributed this to the fact that defense ministers in Taiwan were often generals and this led to problems of accountability.
"Most military leaders would not like civilians to be Minister of Defense," agreed Michael Tsai, who was a rare exception. The next civilian after him to become defense minister had to step down after less than a week in office after being accused of plagiarism.
However, he still believed that the army could be reformed if there was the necessary political will: Focus on reforming the military, restore civilian audit and control, that should be number one," he said. "Reform from the top down before thinking about what to throw money at."
Taiwan′s army ′ill-prepared′ for potential Chinese attack | Asia | An in-depth look at news from across the continent | DW | 05.04.2021
Last edited:
northern watch
TB Fanatic
US, China race walking towards a Taiwan war
China's plan to quadruple its nuclear arsenal by 2030 aims to limit America's options in any future conflict over Taiwan
By RICHARD JAVAD HEYDARIAN
Asia Times
NOVEMBER 7, 2021
The historian Barbara Tuchman described Europe, in the run-up to World War I, as “a heap of swords piled as delicately as jackstraws; one could not be pulled out without moving the others.”
Nowadays, Taiwan finds itself at the center of a similarly delicate dynamic, as China and the United States tussle over the fate of the self-governing island Beijing considers a renegade province that must be “reunited” with the mainland.
For almost half a century, the three parties carefully maintained a fragile status quo rooted in so-called “strategic ambiguity.” The US backed Taiwan politically, but no longer recognized its formal sovereignty after adopting a “One China” policy.
Beijing claimed the island nation as its own, but lacked the requisite capability to impose its will. As for Taiwan, it often flirted with outright declaration of independence, but even its most radical elected leaders never dared to invite open conflict with China.
But cracks have begun to appear in the frozen conflict in recent years, months and weeks, as Beijing rapidly builds up its offensive military capabilities, the Taiwanese electorate progressively drifts away from mainland China and the US comes under intense pressure to assist the beleaguered democratic island.
Amid rising tensions, top Taiwanese officials have warned of a looming Chinese invasion in the near future, while panicky Chinese citizens have been stocking up on survival gear and food in anticipation of a major showdown.
Faced with Beijing’s growing threat, the Tsai Ing-wen administration has doubled down on its international diplomacy, as sympathetic democratic powers from neighboring Japan to the US and European Union step up their support.
One big area of concern is the rapidly shifting balance of military power in cross-strait relations, which may tempt China to seek a moment of reckoning sooner than later.
End of Part 1
China's plan to quadruple its nuclear arsenal by 2030 aims to limit America's options in any future conflict over Taiwan
By RICHARD JAVAD HEYDARIAN
Asia Times
NOVEMBER 7, 2021
The historian Barbara Tuchman described Europe, in the run-up to World War I, as “a heap of swords piled as delicately as jackstraws; one could not be pulled out without moving the others.”
Nowadays, Taiwan finds itself at the center of a similarly delicate dynamic, as China and the United States tussle over the fate of the self-governing island Beijing considers a renegade province that must be “reunited” with the mainland.
For almost half a century, the three parties carefully maintained a fragile status quo rooted in so-called “strategic ambiguity.” The US backed Taiwan politically, but no longer recognized its formal sovereignty after adopting a “One China” policy.
Beijing claimed the island nation as its own, but lacked the requisite capability to impose its will. As for Taiwan, it often flirted with outright declaration of independence, but even its most radical elected leaders never dared to invite open conflict with China.
But cracks have begun to appear in the frozen conflict in recent years, months and weeks, as Beijing rapidly builds up its offensive military capabilities, the Taiwanese electorate progressively drifts away from mainland China and the US comes under intense pressure to assist the beleaguered democratic island.
Amid rising tensions, top Taiwanese officials have warned of a looming Chinese invasion in the near future, while panicky Chinese citizens have been stocking up on survival gear and food in anticipation of a major showdown.
Faced with Beijing’s growing threat, the Tsai Ing-wen administration has doubled down on its international diplomacy, as sympathetic democratic powers from neighboring Japan to the US and European Union step up their support.
One big area of concern is the rapidly shifting balance of military power in cross-strait relations, which may tempt China to seek a moment of reckoning sooner than later.
End of Part 1
Last edited:
northern watch
TB Fanatic
Part 2
In its newly-released annual report on China’s military advancements, the Pentagon has warned of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) growing capability to “conduct joint, long-range precision strikes across domains; increasingly sophisticated space, counterspace and cyber capabilities; as well as the accelerating expansion of the PLA’s nuclear forces.”
By all indications, China is enhancing both its conventional and asymmetric capabilities to deter and defeat any potential US military intervention in the South China Sea region, particularly over Taiwan.
Experts believe that China’s recent hypersonic missile test demonstrates the Asian powerhouse’s growing ability to potentially paralyze US communications systems should a war over Taiwan erupt.
Reports this week that China plans to quadruple its nuclear stockpile by 2030 also point to an offensive shift in China’s nuclear policy that moves away from its long-held “minimum deterrence” and seeks instead to challenging US nuclear primacy.
The Pentagon’s latest China military power report, released on November 3, said Beijing was “expanding the number of land, sea, and air-based nuclear delivery platforms and constructing the infrastructure necessary to support this major expansion of its nuclear forces.”
A bigger nuclear stockpile, some military planners believe, aims at limiting American options in the case of conflict, while the Pentagon suggests it would “provide Beijing with more credible military options in a Taiwan contingency.” The Pentagon has spoken of a Chinese “nascent nuclear triad” with air, land and sea launch capabilities.
“The PLA’s evolving capabilities and concepts continue to strengthen its ability to fight and win wars, to use their own phrase, against what the PRC refers to as a ‘strong enemy’ — again, another phrase that appears in their publications. “And a ‘strong enemy,’ of course, is very likely a euphemism for the United States,” a Pentagon official warned, emphasizing China’s growing boldness to take on the US in the near future.
Taiwan is at the center of America’s island chain military strategy for the Asia-Pacific, a strategic maritime containment plan conceived during the Cold War and still relevant today to restrict China’s sea access in a conflict scenario.
Occupation of the island nation would also be critical to China’s domination of the nearby South China Sea, an artery of global trade and home to untold amounts of hydrocarbon and fisheries resources.
As China builds up its offensive capabilities, the Biden administration has thus come under growing pressure to make security guarantees to Taiwan. In a rare bipartisan act, a group of top US legislators, led by Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) recently expressed support in a letter to the Taiwanese leadership.
End of Part 2
In its newly-released annual report on China’s military advancements, the Pentagon has warned of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) growing capability to “conduct joint, long-range precision strikes across domains; increasingly sophisticated space, counterspace and cyber capabilities; as well as the accelerating expansion of the PLA’s nuclear forces.”
By all indications, China is enhancing both its conventional and asymmetric capabilities to deter and defeat any potential US military intervention in the South China Sea region, particularly over Taiwan.
Experts believe that China’s recent hypersonic missile test demonstrates the Asian powerhouse’s growing ability to potentially paralyze US communications systems should a war over Taiwan erupt.
Reports this week that China plans to quadruple its nuclear stockpile by 2030 also point to an offensive shift in China’s nuclear policy that moves away from its long-held “minimum deterrence” and seeks instead to challenging US nuclear primacy.
The Pentagon’s latest China military power report, released on November 3, said Beijing was “expanding the number of land, sea, and air-based nuclear delivery platforms and constructing the infrastructure necessary to support this major expansion of its nuclear forces.”
A bigger nuclear stockpile, some military planners believe, aims at limiting American options in the case of conflict, while the Pentagon suggests it would “provide Beijing with more credible military options in a Taiwan contingency.” The Pentagon has spoken of a Chinese “nascent nuclear triad” with air, land and sea launch capabilities.
“The PLA’s evolving capabilities and concepts continue to strengthen its ability to fight and win wars, to use their own phrase, against what the PRC refers to as a ‘strong enemy’ — again, another phrase that appears in their publications. “And a ‘strong enemy,’ of course, is very likely a euphemism for the United States,” a Pentagon official warned, emphasizing China’s growing boldness to take on the US in the near future.
Taiwan is at the center of America’s island chain military strategy for the Asia-Pacific, a strategic maritime containment plan conceived during the Cold War and still relevant today to restrict China’s sea access in a conflict scenario.
Occupation of the island nation would also be critical to China’s domination of the nearby South China Sea, an artery of global trade and home to untold amounts of hydrocarbon and fisheries resources.
As China builds up its offensive capabilities, the Biden administration has thus come under growing pressure to make security guarantees to Taiwan. In a rare bipartisan act, a group of top US legislators, led by Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) recently expressed support in a letter to the Taiwanese leadership.
End of Part 2
Last edited:
northern watch
TB Fanatic
Part 3
“For decades, Congress has been one of Taiwan’s strongest allies in upholding America’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act and the Six Assurances. You can count on our continued support in ensuring Taiwan remains one of our most important partners in the Indo-Pacific region,” they wrote.
A growing number of Western powers have also been more openly supporting Taiwan, including through the deployment of naval assets through the Taiwan Straits and joint drills near the self-governing island.
Most recently, 17 warships from the UK, Canada, New Zealand, Japan and the Netherlands conducted joint naval maneuvers off the Japanese island of Okinawa, which is close to the northeastern shores of Taiwan.
Last month, growing tensions over Taiwan were also at the heart of a phone conversation between US President Biden and Chinese paramount leader Xi Jinping and, weeks later, during an in-person meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
But there are still no indications of any diplomatic breakthrough on the issue, as each superpower tries to appeal to hardline and nationalistic constituencies at home.
Under growing pressure, on at least two occasions Biden went so far as to erroneously claim that the US has an alliance commitment to defend Taiwan in an event of a Chinese invasion, even if no such guarantees are mentioned in the Taiwan Relations Act.
While the White House had had to repeatedly walk back Biden’s statements, it has nevertheless expressed “rock solid” commitment to Taiwan’s security and raised its concerns over “China’s provocative military activity near Taiwan, which is destabilizing, risks miscalculations and undermines regional peace and stability.”
A Taiwanese Special Forces soldier during a drill. Photo: Agencies
Both de facto allies also recently admitted that US special forces have been training their Taiwanese counterparts in recent years – a potential red line for Beijing despite major US arms sales including fighter jets to the island over the years. While there are hopes that a major conflict can be prevented in the short-term, the medium- and long-term prospects are looking increasingly dire.
During a recent speech before the Taiwanese parliament, National Security Bureau Director-General Chen Ming-tong claimed that Beijing has been holding intense internal discussions over a potential invasion of Taiwan’s Pratas islands in the near future, a potential prelude to a broader invasion of Taiwan’s main island.
The strategically-located islands in the northeastern reaches of the South China Sea, which are also claimed by Beijing, are particularly vulnerable since they are located more than 250 miles from Taipei.
“Attacking and capturing the Pratas Islands – this scenario where war is being used to force (Taiwan into) talks – our assessment is that this will not happen during President Tsai’s tenure,” Chen told a parliamentary meeting after being questioned on the possibility of an invasion before the end of Tsai administration’s second term in 2024.
“Frankly speaking, they have internally debated this before…We obviously have some understanding,” he added, without providing further detail on his intelligence sources. “In the next one, two, three years, within President Tsai’s tenure, it won’t happen,” he added.
Taiwan’s Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng made a similar assessment earlier, while at the same time warning that a “full scale” invasion could be a matter of years rather than decades.
“With regards to staging an attack on Taiwan, they currently have the ability. But [China] has to pay the price,” he added, underscoring that cross-straits tensions have reached “the most serious” level in more than 40 years of his service.
Meanwhile, Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi warned of a potential “Crimea-style” invasion, whereby similar to Russian operations during the invasion of Ukraine, Chinese forces could largely rely on asymmetric warfare, cyber-attacks, economic sabotage and embedded special forces along with sympathetic militias to take over the island nation.
In China, the drumbeat of war, increasingly driven by extreme nationalist elements online, has reached a fever pitch, triggering panic-buying across the country by anxious citizens.
“Taking Taiwan might only take half a day to one day, maximum three to five days,” a Chinese resident told VICE World News. “But if foreign hostile forces place a blockade against our country, the goods would not be able to enter China, and prices would go up,” he added, reflecting generalized fears of an extended and internationalized conflict if China takes kinetic action against the island.
A recent viral article has even discussed potential investment opportunities in Taiwan once the island becomes China’s “Taiwan province.”
Recognizing the risk of a nationwide panic, the Chinese government has begun to crackdown on “wolf warrior” websites and extreme nationalist netizens who are baying for a war and forced occupation of the self-governing island.
Taiwanese flags fly during a rally by Taiwanese expats in Hong Kong. Photo: Facebook
The magnitude of the crisis was fully on display during a historic visit to Taipei by a European parliamentary delegation this week.
“We came here with a very simple, very clear message: You are not alone. Europe is standing with you,” Raphael Glucksmann, who headed the visiting delegation, told Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.
“Our visit should be considered as an important first step,” he added, emphasizing that “we need a very concrete agenda of high-level meetings and high-level concrete steps together to build a much stronger EU-Taiwan partnership.”
The unprecedented visit came on the heels of Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu’s rare visit to Europe last month, where he called for the creation of a “democratic supply chain” for the post-pandemic era, especially given Taiwan’s centrality in global production of microchips and semiconductors.
During his speech in Slovakia, the US-trained diplomat reminded his European counterparts of the “alarming increase of military exercises, hybrid and cognitive warfare operations” launched by China against Taiwan, which he said “put our democracy under acute threat.”
China has been vocally displeased by growing international support for and high-level official visits by foreign dignitaries to Taiwan. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin immediately condemned the first-ever visit by the EU delegation to Taipei.
“We urge the European side to correct its mistakes and not send any wrong signals to Taiwan separatist forces, otherwise it will harm China-EU relations,” the Chinese diplomat said, underscoring how Beijing and the West are sleepwalking towards a conflict over Taiwan.
End of Part 3 of 3
US, China race walking towards a Taiwan war - Asia Times
“For decades, Congress has been one of Taiwan’s strongest allies in upholding America’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act and the Six Assurances. You can count on our continued support in ensuring Taiwan remains one of our most important partners in the Indo-Pacific region,” they wrote.
A growing number of Western powers have also been more openly supporting Taiwan, including through the deployment of naval assets through the Taiwan Straits and joint drills near the self-governing island.
Most recently, 17 warships from the UK, Canada, New Zealand, Japan and the Netherlands conducted joint naval maneuvers off the Japanese island of Okinawa, which is close to the northeastern shores of Taiwan.
Last month, growing tensions over Taiwan were also at the heart of a phone conversation between US President Biden and Chinese paramount leader Xi Jinping and, weeks later, during an in-person meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
But there are still no indications of any diplomatic breakthrough on the issue, as each superpower tries to appeal to hardline and nationalistic constituencies at home.
Under growing pressure, on at least two occasions Biden went so far as to erroneously claim that the US has an alliance commitment to defend Taiwan in an event of a Chinese invasion, even if no such guarantees are mentioned in the Taiwan Relations Act.
While the White House had had to repeatedly walk back Biden’s statements, it has nevertheless expressed “rock solid” commitment to Taiwan’s security and raised its concerns over “China’s provocative military activity near Taiwan, which is destabilizing, risks miscalculations and undermines regional peace and stability.”
A Taiwanese Special Forces soldier during a drill. Photo: Agencies
Both de facto allies also recently admitted that US special forces have been training their Taiwanese counterparts in recent years – a potential red line for Beijing despite major US arms sales including fighter jets to the island over the years. While there are hopes that a major conflict can be prevented in the short-term, the medium- and long-term prospects are looking increasingly dire.
During a recent speech before the Taiwanese parliament, National Security Bureau Director-General Chen Ming-tong claimed that Beijing has been holding intense internal discussions over a potential invasion of Taiwan’s Pratas islands in the near future, a potential prelude to a broader invasion of Taiwan’s main island.
The strategically-located islands in the northeastern reaches of the South China Sea, which are also claimed by Beijing, are particularly vulnerable since they are located more than 250 miles from Taipei.
“Attacking and capturing the Pratas Islands – this scenario where war is being used to force (Taiwan into) talks – our assessment is that this will not happen during President Tsai’s tenure,” Chen told a parliamentary meeting after being questioned on the possibility of an invasion before the end of Tsai administration’s second term in 2024.
“Frankly speaking, they have internally debated this before…We obviously have some understanding,” he added, without providing further detail on his intelligence sources. “In the next one, two, three years, within President Tsai’s tenure, it won’t happen,” he added.
Taiwan’s Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng made a similar assessment earlier, while at the same time warning that a “full scale” invasion could be a matter of years rather than decades.
“With regards to staging an attack on Taiwan, they currently have the ability. But [China] has to pay the price,” he added, underscoring that cross-straits tensions have reached “the most serious” level in more than 40 years of his service.
Meanwhile, Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi warned of a potential “Crimea-style” invasion, whereby similar to Russian operations during the invasion of Ukraine, Chinese forces could largely rely on asymmetric warfare, cyber-attacks, economic sabotage and embedded special forces along with sympathetic militias to take over the island nation.
In China, the drumbeat of war, increasingly driven by extreme nationalist elements online, has reached a fever pitch, triggering panic-buying across the country by anxious citizens.
“Taking Taiwan might only take half a day to one day, maximum three to five days,” a Chinese resident told VICE World News. “But if foreign hostile forces place a blockade against our country, the goods would not be able to enter China, and prices would go up,” he added, reflecting generalized fears of an extended and internationalized conflict if China takes kinetic action against the island.
A recent viral article has even discussed potential investment opportunities in Taiwan once the island becomes China’s “Taiwan province.”
Recognizing the risk of a nationwide panic, the Chinese government has begun to crackdown on “wolf warrior” websites and extreme nationalist netizens who are baying for a war and forced occupation of the self-governing island.
Taiwanese flags fly during a rally by Taiwanese expats in Hong Kong. Photo: Facebook
The magnitude of the crisis was fully on display during a historic visit to Taipei by a European parliamentary delegation this week.
“We came here with a very simple, very clear message: You are not alone. Europe is standing with you,” Raphael Glucksmann, who headed the visiting delegation, told Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.
“Our visit should be considered as an important first step,” he added, emphasizing that “we need a very concrete agenda of high-level meetings and high-level concrete steps together to build a much stronger EU-Taiwan partnership.”
The unprecedented visit came on the heels of Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu’s rare visit to Europe last month, where he called for the creation of a “democratic supply chain” for the post-pandemic era, especially given Taiwan’s centrality in global production of microchips and semiconductors.
During his speech in Slovakia, the US-trained diplomat reminded his European counterparts of the “alarming increase of military exercises, hybrid and cognitive warfare operations” launched by China against Taiwan, which he said “put our democracy under acute threat.”
China has been vocally displeased by growing international support for and high-level official visits by foreign dignitaries to Taiwan. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin immediately condemned the first-ever visit by the EU delegation to Taipei.
“We urge the European side to correct its mistakes and not send any wrong signals to Taiwan separatist forces, otherwise it will harm China-EU relations,” the Chinese diplomat said, underscoring how Beijing and the West are sleepwalking towards a conflict over Taiwan.
End of Part 3 of 3
US, China race walking towards a Taiwan war - Asia Times
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Chinese warplane violates Taiwan's ADIZ as it chases US spy plane | Taiwan News | 2021-11-08 16:59:00
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Chinese warplane violates Taiwan's ADIZ as it chases US spy plane | Taiwan News | 2021-11-08 16:59:00
jward
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Will Ripley
@willripleyCNN
JUST RELEASED: Taiwan's national defense report says 618 US personnel visited Taiwan between Sept 2019 & August 2021, as Taiwan and the US deepened military cooperation in areas of national security, defense strategy and military operation. 542 Taiwanese personnel visited the US.
View: https://twitter.com/willripleyCNN/status/1457899133650362369?s=20
JUST RELEASED: National defense report also lists what Taiwan considers ‘crucial weapons buildup’ by China over the last two years. This includes the Type 075 landing helicopter dock, Shandong Aircraft Carrier, and J-20 fighter jets —
View: https://twitter.com/willripleyCNN/status/1457900076886417416?s=20
@willripleyCNN
JUST RELEASED: Taiwan's national defense report says 618 US personnel visited Taiwan between Sept 2019 & August 2021, as Taiwan and the US deepened military cooperation in areas of national security, defense strategy and military operation. 542 Taiwanese personnel visited the US.
View: https://twitter.com/willripleyCNN/status/1457899133650362369?s=20
JUST RELEASED: National defense report also lists what Taiwan considers ‘crucial weapons buildup’ by China over the last two years. This includes the Type 075 landing helicopter dock, Shandong Aircraft Carrier, and J-20 fighter jets —
View: https://twitter.com/willripleyCNN/status/1457900076886417416?s=20
jward
passin' thru
The Pentagon's Strategy to Turn Taiwan Into a Defensive Porcupine
Jack Detsch, Zinya Salfiti
14-17 minutes
U.S. military forces have been present in Taiwan for more than a decade, according to multiple people familiar with the deployments and a review of Defense Department data by Foreign Policy.
According to a Foreign Policy review of Pentagon data produced by the Defense Manpower Data Center, an in-house Pentagon organization, the United States has kept small contingents of troops on the island dating back to at least September 2008—the last year of the George W. Bush administration. The numbers also show a small surge of U.S. Marines to Taiwan earlier this year, consistent with the Wall Street Journal’s earlier reporting about American training of Taiwanese boat patrols.
The U.S. military presence on the island is part of an effort stretching over several administrations to bolster Taiwan’s ability to fight off any potential Chinese invasion, but it also risks further inflaming tensions between Washington and Beijing. U.S. and Taiwanese policymakers are already wary of a Chinese lunge across the Taiwan Strait sometime this decade.
The program to train Taiwanese troops is part of low-level exchanges that allow units to come from the island to train under the watch of soldiers, airmen, sailors, and Marines—including a rotation of pilots who train on F-16s at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, one of the Air Force’s major training bases. The last officially recognized U.S. troops left Taiwan in 1979, as Washington began operating under a “One China” policy that acknowledges that Beijing believes Taiwan is a part of China while treating Taipei’s status as unresolved.
U.S. trainers have been present for decades, mostly to train Taiwanese troops on purchases of U.S. military hardware. But the shift under former U.S. President Donald Trump—which has continued under his successor, Joe Biden—has seen the deployment of more U.S. troops, including Special Forces, not only to train the Taiwanese on hardware acquisitions but to help them prepare for scenarios that include repelling Chinese landings, according to two people familiar with the deployment.
Trump’s last two national security advisors touted a so-called porcupine strategy, aimed at making Taiwan a pricklier target with more coastal defense cruise missiles encircling the island. Additional Marines and Army Special Forces have helped prepare Taiwanese Marine forces for a possible amphibious invasion and to continue armed resistance against Chinese counterinsurgency efforts if the People’s Liberation Army makes it onshore.
“If you’re focused on hardening Taiwan, what’s more hardening than resisting an amphibious invasion?” one of the people familiar with the deployment, a former U.S. official, told Foreign Policy. “It was just a logical progression to what was happening.” The former official spoke to Foreign Policy on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military planning. U.S. troops working out of the American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto American embassy in the country, have been conducting beach walks with the Taiwanese for years to help pinpoint areas to fortify against Chinese landings, the former official added, dating back to at least the Obama administration.
“I would argue conventional systems are not going to deter the Chinese,” said Heino Klinck, who was the Pentagon’s top official for East Asia until January. “What will deter the Chinese is this porcupine strategy of even if you try to swallow us, you’re not going to be able to digest us, because you’re going to be fighting beyond the littorals, beyond the beaches. You will have to fight for every square block in Taiwan.”
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen waves from the deck of a frigate during a ceremony to commission two guided missile frigates from the United States into the Taiwan Navy, in the southern port of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, on Nov. 8, 2018. CHRIS STOWERS/AFP via Getty Images
Though the military relationship between the United States and Taiwan has deepened in recent years, the Biden administration, like past administrations, would prefer not to talk about it. Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen acknowledged the deployment in an interview with CNN late last month, but U.S. officials have been much more reluctant to describe the presence, deferring questions from reporters.
Defense officials caution that the figures of U.S. troop deployments are a snapshot in time that may not illustrate the full picture. But the trend line is undoubtedly toward a bigger presence. In June, the Defense Manpower Data Center’s tracking numbers picked up 30 active-duty troops and 15 Pentagon civilians serving on the island, headlined by 23 Marines, a tally that does not appear to include the Army Special Forces unit that’s training on Taiwan. That is an increase over the 20 or so troops for most of 2020, which itself was more than the 10 or so troops in Taiwan earlier in the Trump administration and in the late Obama administration. The number of Pentagon civilians on Taiwan remained at around 15 people throughout that period of time.
The Defense Department declined to comment on the training of Taiwanese forces in response to questions from Foreign Policy. But Lt. Col. Martin Meiners, a Pentagon spokesman, said that U.S. support for Taiwan and the defense relationship are “aligned against the current threat posed by the People’s Republic of China and is in line with our commitments under the Taiwan Relations Act and our One China policy.”
The United States has long supported a peaceful resolution of cross-strait tensions. Meiners said that the United States continues to assist Taiwan in maintaining a self-sufficient defense. China’s uptick in military exercises near Taiwan is “destabilizing and increase the risk of miscalculation,” he added.
Two U.S.-made F-16V fighter jets release flares after dropping bombs during the annual Han Kuang military drills in Taichung, Taiwan, on July 16, 2020. The military drills aim to test how the armed forces would repel an invasion from China, which has vowed to bring Taiwan back into the fold—by force if necessary. SAM YEH/AFP via Getty Images
The stepped-up presence during the Trump administration came about after intense lobbying by then-National Security Advisor John Bolton, according to the former U.S. official. Bolton’s successor, Robert O’Brien, continued the policy. Bolton had written about the possibility of stationing U.S. forces on Taiwan before joining the last administration, and he began a series of National Security Council-led interagency meetings that led to the Trump administration adding more troops despite objections inside the State Department’s Office of Taiwan Coordination, which has long sought to prevent Taipei from taking actions that could harm U.S. relations with Beijing.
The State Department declined to comment on the matter.
News of the deployment, which stunned lawmakers, has progressive foreign-policymakers worried that the Biden administration could be coming close to the line of a provocation; even some Democratic hawks, such as Rep. Elaine Luria, are worried about escalating tensions.
“I think that’s coming close to the line,” said one Senate Democratic staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive subject. “At the same time, China is certainly testing the line themselves. I think there are things we can do to signal that, you know, we are serious, but at the same time, sending the message that we are not seeking a confrontation.”
Luria, a moderate Democrat who serves as the vice chair of the House Armed Services Committee, fears that in a worst-case scenario, a surprise Chinese attack could catch three dozen U.S. Marines and Special Forces unaware.
“Like everyone else, I was very surprised to learn of the presence of U.S. forces in Taiwan,” Luria said. “Why was this decision made to put forces there? So if we talk about something that’s escalatory … [it] would be to actually increase or even continue the presence of U.S. forces on Taiwan.”
“This is a big deal,” Luria said. “If anything, I’m not very comfortable with the presence of U.S. forces [in Taiwan].” Luria said she will seek answers from the Defense Department about the Trump administration’s initial decision to ramp up the deployment.
Other lawmakers fear that there are too few guardrails around Taiwan, which is again becoming a flash point in U.S.-Chinese relations. “We must find ways to avoid miscalculation in the Taiwan Strait,” Sen. Ed Markey told Foreign Policy in a statement. He said he is working to authorize funding for unofficial dialogues to promote transparency and to understand China’s security perceptions.
Other Democrats, such as Rep. Brad Sherman, who has championed levying stiffer human rights sanctions against China for abuses of the Uyghur Muslim minority in Xinjiang province, are more sanguine.
“A well-trained and well-equipped Taiwanese defense force makes a war less likely,” Sherman, the second-ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Foreign Policy in an emailed statement. China, he added, doesn’t know how the United States would respond to any assault and could face severe economic consequences: “Think Iran-level sanctions on steroids,” he said.
Sherman said the move also has a symbolic effect: the United States demonstrates its commitment to help Taiwan defend itself, while also maintaining the deliberately ambiguous policy toward Taiwan that Washington has pursued for decades.
That legacy of strategic ambiguity is coming under fire from some Republicans. Last week, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley unveiled a bill that would allocate $3 billion annually to increase Taiwan’s ability to defend itself in the near term. And even Luria, the moderate Democrat who’s worried about the deployment, wants to give Biden the ability to declare a snap Authorization for Use of Military Force, rather than wait on Congress, if China launches an attack.
“All signs indicate that Xi Jinping is growing more confident in his ability to invade Taiwan,” Hawley told Foreign Policy in an emailed statement. “If we want peace, then Taiwan must prepare for war, especially by accelerating its deployment of the asymmetric defenses required to defeat a Chinese invasion.”
A Taiwanese sailor speaks next to torpedo launch tubes during a tour aboard a U.S.-made submarine at the Tsoying naval base in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, on Jan. 18, 2017. SAM YEH/AFP via Getty Images
U.S. training of Taiwanese forces has long been an open, but not too open, secret. A rare video from the U.S. Army’s 1st Special Forces Group first reported by the Drive last year showed Green Berets training in the country, and Taiwanese media has previously reported that Marine Raiders—the service’s special operations forces—supervised Taiwanese Marines in assault boat and speedboat infiltration.
The Taiwanese have been pushing the Americans, through informal diplomatic channels—as well as public statements about U.S. troops on the island—to take the relationship further and faster, fearing that China is quickly moving to rewrite the geopolitical rulebook in the region. China has long been trying to isolate Taiwan both diplomatically, by trying to force countries to recognize Beijing, and by sidelining Taipei from every sort of international forum, from the International Civil Aviation Organization to the World Health Organization.
Taiwanese officials also want the United States to speed up the timeline of arms sales to the island under the Taiwan Relations Act, the law that governs the U.S. relationship with Taipei. But U.S. officials have long complained about Taiwan’s misguided defense priorities, as it invests in fleets, divisions, and air wings rather than the cheaper missile, rocket, and ground forces that could serve Taipei to repel a Chinese landing. During the Trump administration, the Taiwanese balked at demands from the Pentagon to buy American coastal defense cruise missiles, which U.S. officials insisted would help alter China’s calculus about a potential invasion. Taipei’s unofficial representative office in Washington declined to comment for this story.
The temperature is rising, with China launching its largest ever aerial patrols near Taiwan in early October to coincide with China’s National Day. Defense officials have long seen the effort as a way both to chip away at the integrity of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone—an informal marker of sovereignty—and to burn out Taiwanese pilots by repeatedly forcing them to scramble.
But outside of a major diplomatic flare-up in its first high-level meeting with Chinese officials in March, the Biden administration has proven more cautious about rocking the boat than the Trump administration, according to current and former officials. Kurt Campbell, Biden’s top Asia official at the National Security Council, is more hawkish on China than most in the administration. But even he has sought to internationalize the response to China, instead of championing bluster and military might. And the new administration has tried to grease the slow-moving wheels of government to hone its focus on China. Since the Pentagon’s China review wrapped up earlier this year, the agency has stepped up meetings at the undersecretary level and at Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s level each week to discuss China.
Two former U.S. officials made the point that Taiwan likes messaging the U.S. troop deployments more than the Americans do, because it could make China think twice about attacking the island. Even as top U.S. military officials have warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping would like to resolve the Taiwan situation by 2027—which, if he’s still in office, would be the end of his record-breaking third term—some in Taiwan see the American deployment as a way of calling China’s bluff about how serious it is about going to war over Taiwan.
“I personally think even if this message was revealed by the United States, it may be a good way to send a message to Beijing,” said Wang Ting-yu, the head of Taiwan’s defense and foreign affairs committee in parliament.
“That will put China in an awkward situation, because they have declared one too many times that once the United States military is in Taiwan, they will start a war,” Wang said. “However, the barking dog won’t bite.”
foreignpolicy.com
Jack Detsch, Zinya Salfiti
14-17 minutes
U.S. military forces have been present in Taiwan for more than a decade, according to multiple people familiar with the deployments and a review of Defense Department data by Foreign Policy.
According to a Foreign Policy review of Pentagon data produced by the Defense Manpower Data Center, an in-house Pentagon organization, the United States has kept small contingents of troops on the island dating back to at least September 2008—the last year of the George W. Bush administration. The numbers also show a small surge of U.S. Marines to Taiwan earlier this year, consistent with the Wall Street Journal’s earlier reporting about American training of Taiwanese boat patrols.
The U.S. military presence on the island is part of an effort stretching over several administrations to bolster Taiwan’s ability to fight off any potential Chinese invasion, but it also risks further inflaming tensions between Washington and Beijing. U.S. and Taiwanese policymakers are already wary of a Chinese lunge across the Taiwan Strait sometime this decade.
The program to train Taiwanese troops is part of low-level exchanges that allow units to come from the island to train under the watch of soldiers, airmen, sailors, and Marines—including a rotation of pilots who train on F-16s at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, one of the Air Force’s major training bases. The last officially recognized U.S. troops left Taiwan in 1979, as Washington began operating under a “One China” policy that acknowledges that Beijing believes Taiwan is a part of China while treating Taipei’s status as unresolved.
U.S. trainers have been present for decades, mostly to train Taiwanese troops on purchases of U.S. military hardware. But the shift under former U.S. President Donald Trump—which has continued under his successor, Joe Biden—has seen the deployment of more U.S. troops, including Special Forces, not only to train the Taiwanese on hardware acquisitions but to help them prepare for scenarios that include repelling Chinese landings, according to two people familiar with the deployment.
Trump’s last two national security advisors touted a so-called porcupine strategy, aimed at making Taiwan a pricklier target with more coastal defense cruise missiles encircling the island. Additional Marines and Army Special Forces have helped prepare Taiwanese Marine forces for a possible amphibious invasion and to continue armed resistance against Chinese counterinsurgency efforts if the People’s Liberation Army makes it onshore.
“If you’re focused on hardening Taiwan, what’s more hardening than resisting an amphibious invasion?” one of the people familiar with the deployment, a former U.S. official, told Foreign Policy. “It was just a logical progression to what was happening.” The former official spoke to Foreign Policy on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military planning. U.S. troops working out of the American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto American embassy in the country, have been conducting beach walks with the Taiwanese for years to help pinpoint areas to fortify against Chinese landings, the former official added, dating back to at least the Obama administration.
“I would argue conventional systems are not going to deter the Chinese,” said Heino Klinck, who was the Pentagon’s top official for East Asia until January. “What will deter the Chinese is this porcupine strategy of even if you try to swallow us, you’re not going to be able to digest us, because you’re going to be fighting beyond the littorals, beyond the beaches. You will have to fight for every square block in Taiwan.”
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen waves from the deck of a frigate during a ceremony to commission two guided missile frigates from the United States into the Taiwan Navy, in the southern port of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, on Nov. 8, 2018. CHRIS STOWERS/AFP via Getty Images
Though the military relationship between the United States and Taiwan has deepened in recent years, the Biden administration, like past administrations, would prefer not to talk about it. Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen acknowledged the deployment in an interview with CNN late last month, but U.S. officials have been much more reluctant to describe the presence, deferring questions from reporters.
Defense officials caution that the figures of U.S. troop deployments are a snapshot in time that may not illustrate the full picture. But the trend line is undoubtedly toward a bigger presence. In June, the Defense Manpower Data Center’s tracking numbers picked up 30 active-duty troops and 15 Pentagon civilians serving on the island, headlined by 23 Marines, a tally that does not appear to include the Army Special Forces unit that’s training on Taiwan. That is an increase over the 20 or so troops for most of 2020, which itself was more than the 10 or so troops in Taiwan earlier in the Trump administration and in the late Obama administration. The number of Pentagon civilians on Taiwan remained at around 15 people throughout that period of time.
The Defense Department declined to comment on the training of Taiwanese forces in response to questions from Foreign Policy. But Lt. Col. Martin Meiners, a Pentagon spokesman, said that U.S. support for Taiwan and the defense relationship are “aligned against the current threat posed by the People’s Republic of China and is in line with our commitments under the Taiwan Relations Act and our One China policy.”
The United States has long supported a peaceful resolution of cross-strait tensions. Meiners said that the United States continues to assist Taiwan in maintaining a self-sufficient defense. China’s uptick in military exercises near Taiwan is “destabilizing and increase the risk of miscalculation,” he added.
Two U.S.-made F-16V fighter jets release flares after dropping bombs during the annual Han Kuang military drills in Taichung, Taiwan, on July 16, 2020. The military drills aim to test how the armed forces would repel an invasion from China, which has vowed to bring Taiwan back into the fold—by force if necessary. SAM YEH/AFP via Getty Images
The stepped-up presence during the Trump administration came about after intense lobbying by then-National Security Advisor John Bolton, according to the former U.S. official. Bolton’s successor, Robert O’Brien, continued the policy. Bolton had written about the possibility of stationing U.S. forces on Taiwan before joining the last administration, and he began a series of National Security Council-led interagency meetings that led to the Trump administration adding more troops despite objections inside the State Department’s Office of Taiwan Coordination, which has long sought to prevent Taipei from taking actions that could harm U.S. relations with Beijing.
The State Department declined to comment on the matter.
News of the deployment, which stunned lawmakers, has progressive foreign-policymakers worried that the Biden administration could be coming close to the line of a provocation; even some Democratic hawks, such as Rep. Elaine Luria, are worried about escalating tensions.
“I think that’s coming close to the line,” said one Senate Democratic staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive subject. “At the same time, China is certainly testing the line themselves. I think there are things we can do to signal that, you know, we are serious, but at the same time, sending the message that we are not seeking a confrontation.”
Luria, a moderate Democrat who serves as the vice chair of the House Armed Services Committee, fears that in a worst-case scenario, a surprise Chinese attack could catch three dozen U.S. Marines and Special Forces unaware.
“Like everyone else, I was very surprised to learn of the presence of U.S. forces in Taiwan,” Luria said. “Why was this decision made to put forces there? So if we talk about something that’s escalatory … [it] would be to actually increase or even continue the presence of U.S. forces on Taiwan.”
“This is a big deal,” Luria said. “If anything, I’m not very comfortable with the presence of U.S. forces [in Taiwan].” Luria said she will seek answers from the Defense Department about the Trump administration’s initial decision to ramp up the deployment.
Other lawmakers fear that there are too few guardrails around Taiwan, which is again becoming a flash point in U.S.-Chinese relations. “We must find ways to avoid miscalculation in the Taiwan Strait,” Sen. Ed Markey told Foreign Policy in a statement. He said he is working to authorize funding for unofficial dialogues to promote transparency and to understand China’s security perceptions.
Other Democrats, such as Rep. Brad Sherman, who has championed levying stiffer human rights sanctions against China for abuses of the Uyghur Muslim minority in Xinjiang province, are more sanguine.
“A well-trained and well-equipped Taiwanese defense force makes a war less likely,” Sherman, the second-ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Foreign Policy in an emailed statement. China, he added, doesn’t know how the United States would respond to any assault and could face severe economic consequences: “Think Iran-level sanctions on steroids,” he said.
Sherman said the move also has a symbolic effect: the United States demonstrates its commitment to help Taiwan defend itself, while also maintaining the deliberately ambiguous policy toward Taiwan that Washington has pursued for decades.
That legacy of strategic ambiguity is coming under fire from some Republicans. Last week, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley unveiled a bill that would allocate $3 billion annually to increase Taiwan’s ability to defend itself in the near term. And even Luria, the moderate Democrat who’s worried about the deployment, wants to give Biden the ability to declare a snap Authorization for Use of Military Force, rather than wait on Congress, if China launches an attack.
“All signs indicate that Xi Jinping is growing more confident in his ability to invade Taiwan,” Hawley told Foreign Policy in an emailed statement. “If we want peace, then Taiwan must prepare for war, especially by accelerating its deployment of the asymmetric defenses required to defeat a Chinese invasion.”
A Taiwanese sailor speaks next to torpedo launch tubes during a tour aboard a U.S.-made submarine at the Tsoying naval base in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, on Jan. 18, 2017. SAM YEH/AFP via Getty Images
U.S. training of Taiwanese forces has long been an open, but not too open, secret. A rare video from the U.S. Army’s 1st Special Forces Group first reported by the Drive last year showed Green Berets training in the country, and Taiwanese media has previously reported that Marine Raiders—the service’s special operations forces—supervised Taiwanese Marines in assault boat and speedboat infiltration.
The Taiwanese have been pushing the Americans, through informal diplomatic channels—as well as public statements about U.S. troops on the island—to take the relationship further and faster, fearing that China is quickly moving to rewrite the geopolitical rulebook in the region. China has long been trying to isolate Taiwan both diplomatically, by trying to force countries to recognize Beijing, and by sidelining Taipei from every sort of international forum, from the International Civil Aviation Organization to the World Health Organization.
Taiwanese officials also want the United States to speed up the timeline of arms sales to the island under the Taiwan Relations Act, the law that governs the U.S. relationship with Taipei. But U.S. officials have long complained about Taiwan’s misguided defense priorities, as it invests in fleets, divisions, and air wings rather than the cheaper missile, rocket, and ground forces that could serve Taipei to repel a Chinese landing. During the Trump administration, the Taiwanese balked at demands from the Pentagon to buy American coastal defense cruise missiles, which U.S. officials insisted would help alter China’s calculus about a potential invasion. Taipei’s unofficial representative office in Washington declined to comment for this story.
The temperature is rising, with China launching its largest ever aerial patrols near Taiwan in early October to coincide with China’s National Day. Defense officials have long seen the effort as a way both to chip away at the integrity of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone—an informal marker of sovereignty—and to burn out Taiwanese pilots by repeatedly forcing them to scramble.
But outside of a major diplomatic flare-up in its first high-level meeting with Chinese officials in March, the Biden administration has proven more cautious about rocking the boat than the Trump administration, according to current and former officials. Kurt Campbell, Biden’s top Asia official at the National Security Council, is more hawkish on China than most in the administration. But even he has sought to internationalize the response to China, instead of championing bluster and military might. And the new administration has tried to grease the slow-moving wheels of government to hone its focus on China. Since the Pentagon’s China review wrapped up earlier this year, the agency has stepped up meetings at the undersecretary level and at Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s level each week to discuss China.
Two former U.S. officials made the point that Taiwan likes messaging the U.S. troop deployments more than the Americans do, because it could make China think twice about attacking the island. Even as top U.S. military officials have warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping would like to resolve the Taiwan situation by 2027—which, if he’s still in office, would be the end of his record-breaking third term—some in Taiwan see the American deployment as a way of calling China’s bluff about how serious it is about going to war over Taiwan.
“I personally think even if this message was revealed by the United States, it may be a good way to send a message to Beijing,” said Wang Ting-yu, the head of Taiwan’s defense and foreign affairs committee in parliament.
“That will put China in an awkward situation, because they have declared one too many times that once the United States military is in Taiwan, they will start a war,” Wang said. “However, the barking dog won’t bite.”
The U.S. Is Getting Taiwan Ready to Fight on the Beaches
Biden continues Trump’s “porcupine strategy” to harden the island’s defenses.
foreignpolicy.com
jward
passin' thru
Taiwan says China can blockade its key harbours, warns of 'grave' threat
By Yimou Lee
Taiwanese domestically built Indigenous Defense Fighters (IDF) take part in the live-fire, anti-landing Han Kuang military exercise, which simulates an enemy invasion, in Taichung, Taiwan July 16, 2020. REUTERS/Ann Wang
TAIPEI, Nov 9 (Reuters) - China's armed forces are capable of blockading Taiwan's key harbours and airports, the island's defence ministry said on Tuesday, offering its latest assessment of what it describes as a "grave" military threat posed by its giant neighbour.
China has never renounced the use of force to bring democratic Taiwan under its control and has been ramping up military activity around the island, including repeatedly flying war planes into Taiwan's air defence zone.
Taiwan's defence ministry, in a report it issues every two years, said China had launched what it called "gray zone" warfare, citing 554 "intrusions" by Chinese war planes into its southwestern theatre of air defence identification zone between September last year and the end of August.
Military analysts say the tactic is aimed at subduing Taiwan through exhaustion, Reuters reported last year.
At the same time, China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) is aiming to complete the modernisation of its forces by 2035 to "obtain superiority in possible operations against Taiwan and viable capabilities to deny foreign forces, posing a grave challenge to our national security", the Taiwan ministry said.
"At present, the PLA is capable of performing local joint blockade against our critical harbours, airports, and outbound flight routes, to cut off our air and sea lines of communication and impact the flow of our military supplies and logistic resources," the ministry said.
China views Taiwan as Chinese territory. Its defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen says Taiwan is already an independent country and vows to defend its freedom and democracy.
Tsai has made bolstering Taiwan's defences a priority, pledging to produce more domestically developed weapons, including submarines, and buying more equipment from the United States, the island's most important arms supplier and international backer.
In October, Taiwan reported 148 Chinese air force planes in the southern and southwestern theatre of the zone over a four-day period, marking a dramatic escalation of tension between Taipei and Beijing. read more
The recent increase in China's military exercises in Taiwan's air defence identification zone is part of what Taipei views as a carefully planned strategy of harassment.
"Its intimidating behavior does not only consume our combat power and shake our faith and morale, but also attempts to alter or challenge the status quo in the Taiwan Strait to ultimately achieve its goal of 'seizing Taiwan without a fight'," the ministry said.
To counter China's attempt to "seize Taiwan swiftly whilst denying foreign interventions", the ministry vowed to deepen its efforts on "asymmetric warfare" to make any attack as painful and as difficult for China as possible.
That includes precision strikes by long-range missiles on targets in China, deployment of coastal minefields as well as boosting reserve training. read more
Reporting By Yimou Lee; additional reporting by Yew Lun Tian; editing by Robert Birsel
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/4YWKE3EBJVLBLMM76XQW7UJTIE.jpg)
www.reuters.com
By Yimou Lee
Taiwanese domestically built Indigenous Defense Fighters (IDF) take part in the live-fire, anti-landing Han Kuang military exercise, which simulates an enemy invasion, in Taichung, Taiwan July 16, 2020. REUTERS/Ann Wang
TAIPEI, Nov 9 (Reuters) - China's armed forces are capable of blockading Taiwan's key harbours and airports, the island's defence ministry said on Tuesday, offering its latest assessment of what it describes as a "grave" military threat posed by its giant neighbour.
China has never renounced the use of force to bring democratic Taiwan under its control and has been ramping up military activity around the island, including repeatedly flying war planes into Taiwan's air defence zone.
Taiwan's defence ministry, in a report it issues every two years, said China had launched what it called "gray zone" warfare, citing 554 "intrusions" by Chinese war planes into its southwestern theatre of air defence identification zone between September last year and the end of August.
Military analysts say the tactic is aimed at subduing Taiwan through exhaustion, Reuters reported last year.
At the same time, China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) is aiming to complete the modernisation of its forces by 2035 to "obtain superiority in possible operations against Taiwan and viable capabilities to deny foreign forces, posing a grave challenge to our national security", the Taiwan ministry said.
"At present, the PLA is capable of performing local joint blockade against our critical harbours, airports, and outbound flight routes, to cut off our air and sea lines of communication and impact the flow of our military supplies and logistic resources," the ministry said.
China views Taiwan as Chinese territory. Its defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen says Taiwan is already an independent country and vows to defend its freedom and democracy.
Tsai has made bolstering Taiwan's defences a priority, pledging to produce more domestically developed weapons, including submarines, and buying more equipment from the United States, the island's most important arms supplier and international backer.
In October, Taiwan reported 148 Chinese air force planes in the southern and southwestern theatre of the zone over a four-day period, marking a dramatic escalation of tension between Taipei and Beijing. read more
The recent increase in China's military exercises in Taiwan's air defence identification zone is part of what Taipei views as a carefully planned strategy of harassment.
"Its intimidating behavior does not only consume our combat power and shake our faith and morale, but also attempts to alter or challenge the status quo in the Taiwan Strait to ultimately achieve its goal of 'seizing Taiwan without a fight'," the ministry said.
To counter China's attempt to "seize Taiwan swiftly whilst denying foreign interventions", the ministry vowed to deepen its efforts on "asymmetric warfare" to make any attack as painful and as difficult for China as possible.
That includes precision strikes by long-range missiles on targets in China, deployment of coastal minefields as well as boosting reserve training. read more
Reporting By Yimou Lee; additional reporting by Yew Lun Tian; editing by Robert Birsel
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Taiwan says China can blockade its key harbours, warns of 'grave' threat
China's armed forces are capable of blockading Taiwan's key harbours and airports, the island's defence ministry said on Tuesday, offering its latest assessment of what it describes as a "grave" military threat posed by its giant neighbour.
www.reuters.com
jward
passin' thru
Alert 5
@alert5
45m
Taiwan's latest defense report says deliveries of Brave Eagle has started, seeks SLAM-ER for F-16 - http://alert5.com/2021/11/09/tai
View: https://twitter.com/alert5/status/1457947551747956738?s=20
jward
passin' thru
@MoNDefense
3h
6 PLA aircraft (Y-8 RECCE, Y-8 ASW and J-16*4) entered #Taiwan’s southwest ADIZ on November 9, 2021. Please check our official website for more information: https://reurl.cc/YjnX94
View: https://twitter.com/MoNDefense/status/1458059921266655249?s=20
3h
6 PLA aircraft (Y-8 RECCE, Y-8 ASW and J-16*4) entered #Taiwan’s southwest ADIZ on November 9, 2021. Please check our official website for more information: https://reurl.cc/YjnX94
View: https://twitter.com/MoNDefense/status/1458059921266655249?s=20
jward
passin' thru
China conducts combat readiness patrol as U.S. lawmakers visit Taiwan
1/2
Chinese and Taiwanese national flags are displayed alongside a military airplane in this illustration taken April 9, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration//File Photo
BEIJING/TAIPEI, Nov 9 (Reuters) - China's military said on Tuesday it had conducted a combat readiness patrol in the direction of the Taiwan Strait, after its defence ministry condemned a visit to Taiwan by a U.S. congressional delegation it said had arrived on a military aircraft.
The patrol was aimed at the "seriously wrong" words and actions of "relevant countries" on the Taiwan issue and the activities of pro-independence forces in Taiwan, a Chinese military spokesperson said in a statement.
Cross-strait tensions have been rising in recent months, with Taiwan complaining for a year or more of repeated missions by China's air force near the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its own.
Taiwan's defence ministry said six Chinese military aircraft entered its southwestern air defence zone on Tuesday, including four J-16 fighter jets and two surveillance planes.
Several Taiwan media outlets reported on Tuesday that unspecified members from both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate had arrived in Taipei on a U.S. military plane.
When asked about the visit, Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang told reporters on Wednesday that Taiwan-U.S. relations are "very important" and that he respects "mutual visits between friends".
The government will make "appropriate arrangement" based on each others' need, he said, without elaborating.
The American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto U.S. embassy in the absence of formal diplomatic ties, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
China's defence ministry said in a statement that members of the U.S. Congress had arrived in Taiwan by military plane.
"We firmly oppose and strongly condemn this," it said.
In Washington, the Pentagon said it was not uncommon for congressional delegations to be transported in military aircraft.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby did not provide details on who was on the flight, but said this was the second such congressional trip to Taiwan this year.
"It's not unusual," Kirby said.
China has not ruled out using force to bring Taiwan under its control, despite the island's claim that it is an independent country that will defend its freedom and democracy.
In June, China's defence ministry denounced a brief weekend visit by three U.S. senators to Taiwan on a U.S. military aircraft, calling it a "vile political provocation" that was irresponsible and dangerous.
Reporting by Meg Shen in Hong Kong, Ryan Woo and Yew Lun Tian in Beijing, Yimou Lee in Taipei, David Brunnstrom and Idrees Ali in Washington; Writing by Tony Munroe; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Alex Richardson, Nick Macfie, Jonathan Oatis and Gerry Doyle
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/66KHKRFTVFPXHIVNC5HON63GUE.jpg)
www.reuters.com
1/2
Chinese and Taiwanese national flags are displayed alongside a military airplane in this illustration taken April 9, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration//File Photo
BEIJING/TAIPEI, Nov 9 (Reuters) - China's military said on Tuesday it had conducted a combat readiness patrol in the direction of the Taiwan Strait, after its defence ministry condemned a visit to Taiwan by a U.S. congressional delegation it said had arrived on a military aircraft.
The patrol was aimed at the "seriously wrong" words and actions of "relevant countries" on the Taiwan issue and the activities of pro-independence forces in Taiwan, a Chinese military spokesperson said in a statement.
Cross-strait tensions have been rising in recent months, with Taiwan complaining for a year or more of repeated missions by China's air force near the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its own.
Taiwan's defence ministry said six Chinese military aircraft entered its southwestern air defence zone on Tuesday, including four J-16 fighter jets and two surveillance planes.
Several Taiwan media outlets reported on Tuesday that unspecified members from both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate had arrived in Taipei on a U.S. military plane.
When asked about the visit, Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang told reporters on Wednesday that Taiwan-U.S. relations are "very important" and that he respects "mutual visits between friends".
The government will make "appropriate arrangement" based on each others' need, he said, without elaborating.
The American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto U.S. embassy in the absence of formal diplomatic ties, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
China's defence ministry said in a statement that members of the U.S. Congress had arrived in Taiwan by military plane.
"We firmly oppose and strongly condemn this," it said.
In Washington, the Pentagon said it was not uncommon for congressional delegations to be transported in military aircraft.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby did not provide details on who was on the flight, but said this was the second such congressional trip to Taiwan this year.
"It's not unusual," Kirby said.
China has not ruled out using force to bring Taiwan under its control, despite the island's claim that it is an independent country that will defend its freedom and democracy.
In June, China's defence ministry denounced a brief weekend visit by three U.S. senators to Taiwan on a U.S. military aircraft, calling it a "vile political provocation" that was irresponsible and dangerous.
Reporting by Meg Shen in Hong Kong, Ryan Woo and Yew Lun Tian in Beijing, Yimou Lee in Taipei, David Brunnstrom and Idrees Ali in Washington; Writing by Tony Munroe; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Alex Richardson, Nick Macfie, Jonathan Oatis and Gerry Doyle
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
China holds combat readiness patrol as U.S. lawmakers visit Taiwan
China's military said on Tuesday it had conducted a combat readiness patrol in the direction of the Taiwan Strait, after its defence ministry condemned a visit to Taiwan by a U.S. congressional delegation it said had arrived on a military aircraft.
www.reuters.com
jward
passin' thru
EndGameWW3
@EndGameWW3
1h
China urges U.S. to stop official interaction with Taiwan
View: https://twitter.com/EndGameWW3/status/1458470787392942092?s=20
jward
passin' thru
Apex
@Apex_WW
'Taiwan independence' means loss of peace, says mainland spokesperson
View: https://twitter.com/Apex_WW/status/1458437877147258891?s=20
jward
passin' thru
Indo-Pacific News - Watching the CCP-China Threat
@IndoPac_Info
35s
China sends 6 military aircraft into Taiwan ADIZ on day US congressmen visit https://taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4340566
View: https://twitter.com/IndoPac_Info/status/1458492903085510672?s=20
danielboon
TB Fanatic
This could push it over the edge
View: https://mobile.twitter.com/EndGameWW3/status/1458548565563875335
vector7
Dot Collector
China Demands US Immediately End All Official Contacts With Taiwan
by Tyler Durden
Thursday, Nov 11, 2021 - 05:40 PM
Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,
China’s Foreign Ministry reacted Wednesday to a visit to Taiwan by a group of Senate and House Republicans and called on Washington to end official contacts with Taipei.
"The visit of the relevant members of the US Congress gravely violates the one-China principle," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a daily press briefing. "China firmly opposes this and has lodged solemn representation with the US side. We ask the US side to immediately stop all forms of official interactions with Taiwan."...
www.zerohedge.com
by Tyler Durden
Thursday, Nov 11, 2021 - 05:40 PM
Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,
China’s Foreign Ministry reacted Wednesday to a visit to Taiwan by a group of Senate and House Republicans and called on Washington to end official contacts with Taipei.
"The visit of the relevant members of the US Congress gravely violates the one-China principle," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a daily press briefing. "China firmly opposes this and has lodged solemn representation with the US side. We ask the US side to immediately stop all forms of official interactions with Taiwan."...
Zerohedge
ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
www.zerohedge.com
jward
passin' thru
Indo-Pacific News - Watching the CCP-China Threat
@IndoPac_Info
1h
#US and allies would 'take action' if #Taiwan attacked - Blinken The #UnitedStates and its allies would take unspecified "action" if #China were to use force to alter the status quo over Taiwan, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.
View: https://twitter.com/IndoPac_Info/status/1459386160996761605?s=20
@IndoPac_Info
1h
#US and allies would 'take action' if #Taiwan attacked - Blinken The #UnitedStates and its allies would take unspecified "action" if #China were to use force to alter the status quo over Taiwan, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.
View: https://twitter.com/IndoPac_Info/status/1459386160996761605?s=20
Someone needs to remind the leadership of the CCP that if it "goes there" they're at the top of the list to be gotten gone....All of this "wolf diplomacy" goes both ways, just like tracers.....
