[🇨🇳] China-Taiwan Feud

[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.​