[🇨🇳] China-Taiwan Feud

[Saif]

China's military encircles Taiwan in 'warning' drills

China deployed fighter jets and warships to encircle Taiwan on Monday in drills Beijing said were aimed at sending a "stern warning" to "separatist" forces on the self-ruled island.

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China's military encircles Taiwan in 'warning' drills
AFP
Taipei
Published: 14 Oct 2024, 14: 27

Map of Taiwan showing China's "Joint Sword-2024B" military exercise areas, according to a map issued by the mainland's defense ministry AFP

China deployed fighter jets and warships to encircle Taiwan on Monday in drills Beijing said were aimed at sending a "stern warning" to "separatist" forces on the self-ruled island.

Beijing has not ruled out using force to bring Taiwan under its control and Monday's drills represent its fourth round of large-scale war games in just over two years.

The United States said China's actions were "unwarranted" and risk "escalation" as it called on Beijing to act with restraint.

President Lai Ching-te, who took office in May, has been more outspoken than his predecessor Tsai Ing-wen in defending Taiwan's sovereignty, angering Beijing, which calls him a "separatist".

Lai vowed on Monday to "protect democratic Taiwan and safeguard national security", while the defence ministry said it dispatched "appropriate forces" in response to the drills.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning hit back, saying "Taiwan independence and peace in the Taiwan Strait are irreconcilable".

AFP journalists near the Hsinchu air force base, in the north of Taiwan, saw 12 fighter jets take off on Monday.

Outlying islands administered by Taipei were on "heightened alert" and "aircraft and ships will respond to enemy situations in accordance with the engagement rules", Taiwan's defence ministry said.

Beijing said its exercises served as a "stern warning to the separatist acts of 'Taiwan Independence' forces".

The drills, dubbed Joint Sword-2024B, are testing troops' "joint operations capabilities" according to Captain Li Xi, spokesman for the Chinese military's Eastern Theater Command.

They are taking place in "areas to the north, south and east of Taiwan Island", he said.

The drills are "focusing on subjects of sea-air combat-readiness patrol, blockade on key ports and areas", Li said.

They also practised an "assault on maritime and ground targets".

The Liaoning aircraft carrier group "with its troops of army, navy, air force and rocket force" was also involved, Li said.

The previous large-scale drills held in May, three days after Lai's inauguration, were called "Joint Sword-2024A" and lasted two days.

China coast guard 'inspections'

China's coast guard was also sent to conduct "inspections" around the island.

A diagram released by the coast guard showed four fleets encircling Taiwan and moving in an anti-clockwise direction around the island.

The coast guard of the eastern province of Fujian -- the closest area on the mainland to Taiwan -- also said it was conducting "comprehensive law enforcement patrols" in waters near the Taipei-controlled Matsu islands.

Taiwan said four "formations" of China coast guard ships were patrolling the island, but they had not entered its prohibited or restricted waters.
China has ramped up military activity around Taiwan in recent years, sending warplanes and other military aircraft while its ships maintain a near-constant presence around the island's waters.

"In the face of enemy threats, all officers and soldiers of the country are in full readiness," Taiwan's defence ministry said on Monday.

Lai convened a high-level security meeting over the drills, said Joseph Wu, secretary-general of the National Security Council, who described the exercises as "inconsistent with international law".

In his National Day speech on Thursday, Lai vowed to "resist annexation" and insisted that Beijing and Taipei were "not subordinate to each other".
Lai's Democratic Progressive Party has long defended the sovereignty and democracy of Taiwan, which has its own government, military and currency.

Beijing said on Monday the drills were "a legitimate and necessary operation for safeguarding state sovereignty and national unity".

'Feel a bit numb'

Lieutenant colonel Fu Zhengnan, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences, said in a video shared by state media that the drills could "switch from training to combat at any time".

"If Taiwan separatists provoke once, the PLA's operation around the island will make their first move," Fu said, referring to China's People's Liberation Army.

Taiwan's coast guard said on Monday it had detained a Chinese man on one of its outlying islands after a possible "grey zone intrusion", referring to tactics that fall short of a direct act of war.

In Taipei, people appeared to be largely unperturbed.

"I won't panic too much because they quite often have drills," 34-year-old engineer Benjamin Hsiao told AFP.

"It's not the first time in recent years anyway, so I feel a bit numb."

AFP journalists on Monday afternoon saw about five military jeeps mounted with machine guns patrolling around Taipei Songshan Airport, which is also a military air base.

The dispute between China and Taiwan dates back to a civil war in which the nationalist forces of Chiang Kai-shek were defeated by Mao Zedong's communist fighters and fled to the island in 1949.

China and Taiwan have been ruled separately since then.​

 

[Saif]

China tested two missiles during war games: Taiwan

China test-fired two missiles during a day of military drills around Taiwan, a Taiwanese security official said, adding they were directed inland and not at the self-ruled island.

www.thedailystar.net

China tested two missiles during war games: Taiwan

China test-fired two missiles during a day of military drills around Taiwan, a Taiwanese security official said, adding they were directed inland and not at the self-ruled island.

Beijing deployed a record number of military aircraft as well as warships and coast guard vessels to encircle Taiwan on Monday, in the fourth round of large-scale drills in just over two years.

During the exercises, which lasted 13 hours, China test-fired two missiles "into the interior", the national security official told a briefing Wednesday on the condition of anonymity.

While the exercises were a "serious" threat, they did not mean that war was "imminent" or "inevitable", the official said.

Though "their ability to switch from exercises to war has been gradually strengthening, we still believe that war is not imminent and it is not inevitable", the official said.

After then US House speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August 2022, China unleashed massive military exercises that included sending missiles into the skies around Taiwan.

China's ruling Communist Party has never controlled Taiwan, but it claims the island as part of its territory and has said it will never renounce the use of force to take it.

Beijing has ramped up military pressure on the democratic island in recent years as it seeks to browbeat Taipei into accepting its claims of sovereignty.

China held war games three days after the inauguration of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te in May, who Beijing calls a "separatist."

It held another round of drills on Monday after Lai vowed in his National Day speech last Thursday to "resist annexation" and insisted that China and Taiwan were not "not subordinate to each other".

The security official said an "important part" of China's drills on Monday was a blockade exercise against Taiwan.

"We can imagine how serious the threat was to Taiwan that day and how much pressure it put on Taiwan's military," the official said.

"If China actually blockades the Taiwan Strait or Taiwan's major ports, it would cause chaos in the international trade order."​

 

[Saif]

US, Canada warships pass through Taiwan Strait

A US and a Canadian warship have passed through waters separating Taiwan and China, a week after Beijing held large-scale military drills in the sensitive passage.

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US, Canada warships pass through Taiwan Strait
Agence France-Presse . Taipei 21 October, 2024, 22:08

A US and a Canadian warship have passed through waters separating Taiwan and China, a week after Beijing held large-scale military drills in the sensitive passage.

The United States and its allies regularly cross through the 180-kilometre Taiwan Strait to reinforce its status as an international waterway, angering Beijing.

China’s Communist Party has never ruled Taiwan, but it claims the island as part of its territory and has said it will not renounce the use of force to bring it under its control.

‘The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Higgins (DDG 76) and Royal Canadian Navy Halifax-class frigate HMCS Vancouver (FFH 331) conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit on Oct. 20,’ the US Navy’s 7th Fleet said in a statement.

‘Higgins and Vancouver’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrated the United States’ and Canada’s commitment to upholding freedom of navigation for all nations as a principle.’

China said Monday that the US and Canadian actions had disrupted ‘peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait’.

‘The PLA Eastern Theater Command organised naval and air forces to monitor and remain on alert throughout the transit, handling the situation according to laws and regulations,’ military spokesperson Captain Li Xi said in a statement.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said Monday the US and Canadian ships travelled ‘from south to north’ of the strait and the situation in the surrounding sea and airspace ‘remained normal’.

Beijing sent a record number of military aircraft as well as warships and coast guard vessels to encircle Taiwan on October 14 in the fourth round of major drills in just over two years.

Taiwan deployed ‘appropriate forces’ and put outlying islands on heightened alert in response to the exercises, which Beijing said were a ‘stern warning to the separatist acts of ‘Taiwan Independence’ forces’.

Beijing has ramped up military pressure on Taipei in recent years, deploying on a near-daily basis warplanes and other military aircraft as well as ships around the island.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said Monday it had detected 14 Chinese military aircraft and 12 navy vessels in the 24 hours to 6:00am.​

 

[Saif]

Taiwan detects 37 Chinese aircraft near island

Taiwan said it detected 37 Chinese fighter jets, drones and other aircraft near the self-ruled island on Sunday as Beijing carried out ‘long-distance’ training flights.

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Taiwan detects 37 Chinese aircraft near island
Agence France-Presse . Taipei 03 November, 2024, 22:25

Taiwan said it detected 37 Chinese fighter jets, drones and other aircraft near the self-ruled island on Sunday as Beijing carried out ‘long-distance’ training flights.

China has ramped up military activity around Taiwan in recent years as Beijing pressures Taipei to accept its claims of sovereignty over the island.

The Chinese aircraft were spotted from 9:00am (0100 GMT) and 35 of them crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, which separates mainland China and Taiwan, and entered Taiwanese airspace on their way to the Western Pacific Ocean, the defence ministry said.

Taiwan’s military responded by deploying aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems, the ministry said.

The exercise came a day after Taiwan said it had detected a Chinese military ‘joint combat readiness patrol’ around the island involving fighter jets and warships.

Taiwan spotted 27 Chinese aircraft and six warships in the 24 hours to 6:00am on Sunday, the ministry said earlier.

China considers Taiwan part of its territory and has refused to rule out the use of force to bring the democratic island under its control.

Beijing held large-scale military drills around Taiwan last month, which were condemned by Taipei and its key backer the United States.

The Chinese military conducted long-distance training flights in late September, the ministry said previously, when Beijing also fired an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean.​

 

[Saif]

We have to fight together to prevent war, Taiwan’s Lai says in US

Taiwanese president Lai Ching-te said in the United States on Saturday that we have to ‘fight together to prevent war’, as he kicked off a week-long tour of the Pacific that has sparked fiery rhetoric from Beijing.

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We have to fight together to prevent war, Taiwan’s Lai says in US
Agence France-Presse . Honolulu 01 December, 2024, 22:59

Taiwanese president Lai Ching-te said in the United States on Saturday that we have to ‘fight together to prevent war’, as he kicked off a week-long tour of the Pacific that has sparked fiery rhetoric from Beijing.

Taiwan faces the constant threat of a military attack by China, which it considers part of its territory and regularly deploys fighter jets and warships around the self-ruled island to press its claims.

Washington is Taipei’s most important partner and biggest provider of weapons, but maintains a ‘strategic ambiguity’ when it comes to putting boots on the ground to defend the island from China.

Speaking at a dinner in the US island state of Hawaii on Saturday, Lai said there were ‘no winners’ from conflict and ‘we have to fight, fight together to prevent war.’

Lai earlier received a standing ovation as he walked down a red carpet for the gathering with US government officials, state politicians, members of Congress, and Taiwanese expatriates.

He said the US flag and Hawaii state flag given to him as a gift ‘symbolise the longstanding friendship between Taiwan and the United States and lays the foundation for further cooperation in the future.’

The chairperson of the American Institute in Taiwan, the body that serves as the de facto US embassy, said the partnership between Washington and Taipei was ‘rock solid’.

‘The opportunity for you to engage with thought leaders, the diaspora’s community and state and local leaders is invaluable, and I know will contribute to further strengthening the rock solid US-Taiwan partnership,’ Laura Rosenberger said in a pre-recorded video played at the dinner.

Like most countries, Washington does not recognise Taiwan diplomatically but maintains close unofficial ties.

Beijing opposes any international recognition of Taiwan and its claim to be a sovereign state and especially bristles at official contact between the island and the United States.

In a statement, China’s foreign ministry said it ‘strongly condemns’ the United States for Lai’s stopover and that it had ‘lodged serious protests with the US’.

‘China will closely follow the developments and take resolute and strong measures to defend our nation’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,’ it said.

Lai, who is travelling abroad for the first time since taking office in May, was welcomed with red carpets, flower garlands and ‘alohas’ as he began the two-day stopover in Hawaii.

Looking relaxed in a Hawaiian shirt, Lai flitted around, visiting a Pacific island history museum, an emergency management centre and the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbour.

On his arrival, he was given the ‘red carpet treatment’ on the tarmac of Honolulu’s international airport, according to his office, which said it was the first time a Taiwanese president had been given such a welcome.

He was met by Ingrid Larson, managing director in Washington of the AIT, Hawaii Governor Josh Green, and others.

Taiwanese government officials have previously stopped over on US soil during visits to the Pacific or Latin America, angering China, which has sometimes responded with military drills around the island.

After Hawaii, Lai will visit Taiwan’s allies the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau — the only Pacific island nations among the 12 countries that recognize Taiwan’s claim to statehood — and stop over for one night in the US territory of Guam.

Lai said shortly before take-off in Taipei that the trip ‘ushered in a new era of values-based democracy’ and thanked the US government for ‘helping to make this trip a smooth one’.

He said he wanted to ‘continue to expand cooperation and deepen partnerships with our allies based on the values of democracy, peace and prosperity.’

‘I once again emphasise that we are all Team Taiwan. We all work together, and we can successfully achieve our goals,’ Lai told reporters on board the plane.

An AFP journalist is travelling with the president for the duration of the trip.

In a swift response to news of Lai’s trip on Thursday, Wu Qian, a spokesperson for China’s defence ministry said: ‘We firmly oppose official interaction with China’s Taiwan region in any form’ and vowed to ‘resolutely crush’ any attempts for Taiwan independence.

Lai’s trip follows the US approval on Friday of a proposed sale to Taiwan of spare parts for F-16s and radar systems, as well as communications equipment, in deals valued at $385 million in total.

The Taiwan president’s trip comes as Republican US president-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office in January.

During his campaign, Trump caused jitters by suggesting Taiwan should pay the United States for its defence.​

 

[Saif]

Taiwan military on high alert

Taiwan raised its alert level yesterday saying China has set up seven zones of reserved airspace and deployed naval fleets and coast guard boats in what a security source described as the first military drills across a broad swathe of the region’s waters.

www.thedailystar.net

Taiwan military on high alert

China deploys 90 ships in likely drills

Taiwan raised its alert level yesterday saying China has set up seven zones of reserved airspace and deployed naval fleets and coast guard boats in what a security source described as the first military drills across a broad swathe of the region's waters.

A senior Taiwan security official told Reuters that China currently has nearly 90 navy and coast guard ships in waters near Taiwan, the southern Japanese islands and the East and South China Seas, of which around two-thirds were navy vessels.

Beijing's defence ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

China, which claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, had been expected to launch another round of exercises in response to Taiwan President Lai Ching-te's trip to the Pacific, which included stopovers in Hawaii and the U.S. territory of Guam, security sources had told Reuters.​

 

[Saif]

Taiwan says China carrying out huge maritime deployment

China is deploying dozens of ships in its biggest maritime mobilisation around Taiwan in years, Taipei said Tuesday, after Beijing voiced fury at President Lai Ching-te’s recent visit to the United States...

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Taiwan says China carrying out huge maritime deployment
Agence France-Presse . Hsinchu, Taiwan 10 December, 2024, 21:59

Taiwan fighter jets take off as the island is on high alert for China war games. | AFP photo

China is deploying dozens of ships in its biggest maritime mobilisation around Taiwan in years, Taipei said Tuesday, after Beijing voiced fury at President Lai Ching-te’s recent visit to the United States.

Taiwanese forces were on high alert in anticipation of Beijing’s People’s Liberation Army staging war games in response to Lai’s US stopovers and call with Republican House speaker Mike Johnson.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said the number of Chinese ships in the waters around the island exceeded Beijing’s maritime response to then US House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei in 2022, which was the largest-ever war games.

In those drills, Beijing deployed ballistic missiles, fighter jets and warships in what analysts described as practice for a blockade and ultimate invasion of Taiwan — and was a display of how far China’s military had come since the last Taiwan Strait crisis in the mid-1990s.

Nearly 90 Chinese naval and coast guard ships were currently in waters along the so-called first island chain, which links Okinawa, Taiwan and the Philippines, a senior Taiwanese security official said.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said earlier it had also detected 47 Chinese aircraft near the island in the 24 hours to 6:00am (2200 GMT).

That was the highest number of aircraft detected in a single day since a record 153 reported on October 15, after China staged major military drills in response to Lai’s National Day speech days earlier.

China — which regards Taiwan as its territory and has not ruled out using force to bring it under its control — has held four large-scale military exercises in just over two years, including the drills in response to Pelosi’s visit and two since Lai took office in May.

‘It can indeed be said that the scale of these maritime forces exceeds the four drills since 2022,’ defence ministry spokesman Sun Li-fang told reporters.

Sun said the latest exercises drew forces from three separate Chinese regional commands, while another defence ministry official said China’s actions were ‘not solely directed at Taiwan’.

There has been no public announcement by the PLA or Chinese state media about increased military activity in the East China Sea, Taiwan Strait, South China Sea or Western Pacific Ocean, where Taiwan said Chinese ships had been detected.

However, a Beijing foreign ministry spokeswoman said Tuesday that China will ‘resolutely defend’ its sovereignty.

The lack of an announcement from Beijing was unusual and, if drills were under way, could be a ‘deliberate strategy to sow confusion and exert psychological pressure,’ Duan Dang, a Vietnam-based maritime security analyst, said.

‘China’s current movements resemble what we would see during preparations for real combat, exceeding the scale of previous exercises,’ he added.

Taipei-based security analyst J Michael Cole said the mix of PLA navy vessels and coast guard ships highlighted Beijing’s efforts to ‘increase interoperability’ between the two.

‘Such efforts also blur the lines between civilian and military components and thus complicate Taiwan’s ability to respond proportionally,’ Cole said.

Beijing has asserted its claims over contested territories in the region far more boldly in recent years, as its military strength has grown.

The escalating actions — over islands in the East China Sea claimed by Japan, self-ruled Taiwan, and reefs and islands in the South China Sea that are also claimed by Southeast Asian nations — have come as Beijing’s rivals have drawn closer to the United States.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said Monday that China was the ‘only country in the world that has the intent and, increasingly, the capability to change the rules-based international order.’

‘We want to see this region, this area remain open to freedom of navigation and the ability to fly the skies and international airways whenever we want to,’ Austin said in a speech aboard the USS George Washington, an aircraft carrier stationed in Japan.

‘We’re going to continue to work with our allies and partners to ensure that we can do just that.’

The United States is Taiwan’s most important backer and biggest supplier of arms, but has long maintained ‘strategic ambiguity’ when it comes to putting boots on the ground to defend the island.

Lai said Friday he was ‘confident’ of deeper cooperation with the next Donald Trump administration, a day after he spoke with US Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson that angered China.

China’s foreign ministry warned Taiwan on Friday that ‘seeking independence with the help of the United States will inevitably hit a wall’, and called on Washington to ‘cease meddling in Taiwan-related affairs’.

The dispute between Taiwan and China goes back to 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalist forces were defeated by Mao Zedong’s communist fighters and fled to the island.​

 

[Saif]

Taiwan detects 16 Chinese warships around island

Taiwan said on Thursday it detected 16 Chinese warships in waters around the island, one of the highest numbers this year, as Beijing intensifies military pressure on Taipei.

www.newagebd.net

Taiwan detects 16 Chinese warships around island
Agence France-Presse . Taipei 12 December, 2024, 23:08

Taiwan said on Thursday it detected 16 Chinese warships in waters around the island, one of the highest numbers this year, as Beijing intensifies military pressure on Taipei.

The navy vessels, along with 34 Chinese aircraft, were spotted near Taiwan in the 24 hours to 6:00am (2200 GMT) Thursday, according to the defence ministry’s daily tally.

Beijing has been holding its biggest maritime drills in years from near the southern islands of Japan to the South China Sea, Taiwan authorities said this week.

Around 90 Chinese warships and coast guard vessels have been involved in the exercises that include simulating attacks on foreign ships and practising blockading sea routes, a Taiwan security official said Wednesday.

There has been no announcement by Beijing’s army or Chinese state media about increased military activity in the East China Sea, Taiwan Strait, South China Sea or Western Pacific Ocean.

However, a recent Pacific tour by Taiwanese president Lai Ching-te that included two stops in US territory drew fury from Beijing, which claims the democratic island as part of China’s territory.

The security official said that China began planning the massive maritime operation in October and aimed to demonstrate it could choke off Taiwan and draw a ‘red line’ ahead of the next US administration.

The sea drills were ‘significantly larger’ than Beijing’s maritime response to then-US House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei in 2022, the security official said. Those war games were China’s largest-ever around Taiwan.

Taiwan’s foreign ministry said Wednesday that China’s increased military activity around the island was evidence that Beijing was a ‘troublemaker’.

But China’s foreign ministry — whose spokesperson neither confirmed nor denied that drills were taking place — directed blame at Taiwan.

The de facto US embassy in Taiwan said Thursday it was monitoring ‘with concern’ Beijing’s People’s Liberation Army activity near the island and in the region.

While Beijing had not announced major drills in response to Lai’s trip, Chinese military activity was ‘elevated’, which was ‘consistent with levels we have seen during other large exercises,’ a spokesperson for the American Institute in Taiwan said.

James Char, an expert on China’s military at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, said Beijing’s silence ‘serves as a way of demonstrating that the Taiwan Strait as well as the waters and airspace around the island falls under Chinese sovereignty — hence unnecessary to announce the drills to the world’.

‘This is another means by the mainland to force its position upon others,’ Char said, though he did not rule out Chinese confirmation at a later date.

Taiwan said Monday that the PLA had reserved airspace off the Chinese coast until Wednesday.

Vietnam-based maritime security analyst Duan Dang said Thursday that aviation data showed the airspace zones had ‘fully returned to normal’.

Taiwan lives under the constant threat of invasion by China, which has not ruled out using force to bring the island under its control.

Beijing has ramped up the deployment of fighter jets and warships around the island in recent years, and also opposes any international recognition of self-ruled Taiwan — especially when it comes to official contact between Taipei and Washington.

Lai spoke last week with Republican House speaker Mike Johnson in addition to his two recent stopovers on US soil.

The defence ministry’s tally of Chinese warships on Thursday was the highest since May 25, when 27 navy vessels were detected during Chinese military drills held days after Lai’s inauguration.​