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US warships will continue to transit through the Taiwan Strait
China launched the country's third aircraft carrier, the Fujian
More US lawmakers visit Taiwan 12 days after Pelosi trip
A delegation of American lawmakers arrived in Taiwan on Sunday, just 12 days after a visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that prompted China to launch days of threatening military drills around the self-governing island that Beijing says must come under its control.
The five-member delegation, led by Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, will meet President Tsai Ing-wen and other officials, as well as members of the private sector, to discuss shared interests including reducing tensions in the Taiwan Strait and investments in semiconductors.
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Another US delegation reportedly to arrive in Taiwan tonight
TEHRAN, Aug. 25 (MNA) – In the midst of increasing tensions on the island of Taiwan, the local media of this region announced that a US delegation will enter the island tonight.
A reporter for Taiwan's TVBS channel announced on his Twitter page that a US military plane carrying a high-ranking delegation from this country will arrive in Taiwan tonight.
Tensions in the Taiwan Strait area rose sharply after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei from August 2 to 3. China's armed forces retaliated by conducting large-scale military drills with missile firing in six water areas around the island.
A delegation of US lawmakers arrived on August 14th for an unannounced two-day visit to Taiwan. The group included five members of Congress from both parties. Their arrival on the island drew sharp criticism from Beijing and provoked the start of another Chinese People's Liberation Army drill in the region.
The visit of a US Congress delegation to Taiwan is provocative and does not help to stabilize the situation in the region, Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's economic cooperation department Dmitry Birichevsky said.
Taiwan detects 46 Chinese aircraft, 4 naval vessels in neighbourhood
Taiwan's defence ministry detected 46 Chinese aircraft and 4 naval vessels in its neighbourhood on Sunday.
Taiwan's defence ministry detected 46 Chinese aircraft and 4 naval vessels in its neighbourhood on Sunday.
The Taiwanese army responded to the activities with aircraft in controlled air patrol, naval vessels and land-based missile systems.
"46 PLA aircraft and 4 PLAN vessels around our surrounding region were detected today (Nov. 6, 2022) until 1700(GMT+8). #ROCArmedForces have monitored the situation and responded to these activities with aircraft in CAP, naval vessels, and land-based missile systems," the Taiwanese defence ministry tweeted.
Twenty-one of these detected aircraft had flown on the east part of the median line of the Taiwan Strait and the Southwest Air defence identification zone (ADIZ). The aircraft named by the Taiwanese defence ministry are JH-7, CH-4, SU-302, J-114, J-168, BZK-005, Y-8 ASW2, KJ-500, WZ-7.
This Chinese activity is not an isolated incident as the Taiwanese defence ministry almost daily report them as occurring.
WSJ’s Shelby Holliday takes a look at how a war over Taiwan could wreak havoc on the island nation, rattle major powers in the Pacific and devastate the global economy. Source: U.S. to Expand Troop Presence in Taiwan for Training Against China Threat - WSJ
U.S. to bolster its small force on Taiwan in a signal to The U.S. is increasing its small contingent of troops in Taiwan to train local forces, an American defense official said, in the latest move of support for the island democracy and willingness to raise the ire of China.
The U.S. military presence in Taiwan will grow to between 100 and 200 troops, up from about 30 a year ago, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier Thursday.
“We don’t have a comment on specific operations, engagements or training, but I would highlight that our support for, and defense relationship with, Taiwan remains aligned against the current threat posed by the People’s Republic of China,” Lt. Col. Marty Meiners, a Pentagon spokesman, said in an email. The State Department later offered the same response.
The latest development is only likely to add to the strain in U.S.-China relations, which have become frayed in the months since U.S. President Joe Biden met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Indonesia and tried to set ties on a more stable path.
Tensions have risen since the U.S. identified, and then shot down, what it says was a Chinese spy balloon that crossed the U.S. mainland. China denounced the action against what it says was a wayward weather balloon.
The balloon journey led to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponing a planned trip to China for long-awaited meetings. And when the top U.S. diplomat met his counterpart Wang Yi in Germany, the two traded barbs over everything from the balloon and Taiwan to North Korea and potential Chinese support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
There’s also a lack of top-level military-to-military communications between the two sides. In early February, shortly after shooting down the balloon, the Chinese declined a request from U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to speak to his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe.
At the same time, the Biden administration is under pressure from U.S. lawmakers of both parties to bolster U.S. arms and aid to counter a potential future effort by China to seize Taiwan, which China claims.
In a statement on Wednesday, Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, who chairs the U.S. House’s new select committee on China, said he came back from a visit to Taiwan “even more convinced that the time to arm Taiwan to the teeth was yesterday.”
U.S. military support for Taiwan — including billions in arms sales for advanced weapons — is a constant source of tension between Washington and Beijing. This month, China hit Lockheed Martin and a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies with sanctions and fines for arms sales to Taiwan — moves analysts consider largely symbolic given those units sell little or nothing to China.
The Chinese embassy in Washington didn’t immediately reply to emailed questions.
The Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, Taiwan’s de facto embassy in Washington, said in a statement that “for decades, Taiwan and the United States have coordinated closely on matters pertaining to defense and maintaining peace in the Taiwan Strait. We have no further comments or details to share.”
HIGH ALERT!! CHINA SPREAD DOZENS OF WARPLANES INTO THE SKIES AROUND TAIWAN AIR DEFENSE ZONE
In recent months, China has ramped up its threats towards Taiwan, with incursions by military jets into the island’s air space and missiles fired into the sea around it. Beijing regards the territory as part of its territory and has vowed to bring it back under China’s control. President Joe Biden has made clear that any attempt to do so by force would be met with U.S. retaliation.
Well she did more than anyone to start the Ukraine War.
This is beginning to look less like a drill and more like the real thing (a takeover of Taiwan).
China Conducts Military Exercises Near Taiwan for Second Day
China has conducted a second day of military drills near Taiwan on Sunday. Dozens of fighter jets and warships were deployed in the exercises.
China began the three-day drills on Saturday. Monday is set to be the last day for the drills, which are widely viewed as a retaliatory measure for the Taiwan president's recent meeting in California with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
The Chinese military said in a statement that the combat readiness patrols and “Joint Sword” exercises around Taiwan are a “serious warning to the Taiwan independence separatist forces’ and external forces’ collusion and provocation.”
“The operations are necessary for safeguarding China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the military said.
