Taiwan launched fighter jets, put the navy on alert and activated missile systems, despite the nearby movements of 34 Chinese military jets and nine warships, as part of Beijing’s intimidation strategy.
The information comes from the Taiwan Ministry of Defense.
The large-scale operation by the People’s Liberation Army, the Chinese armed forces, comes as Beijing prepares for a possible blockade or all-out attack on Taiwan, which has raised serious concerns among US military leaders, the island’s main ally.
In a memo sent last Friday, U.S. Air Force General Mike Minihan urged U.S. officials to prepare for a war against China, set to begin in 2025, prompted by a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
As head of the US Air Mobility Command, Minihan has a deep understanding of the Chinese military. His remarks echo calls from other senior US military officials to prepare the country for conflict with China.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said on Tuesday that 20 Chinese military aircraft crossed the centerline in the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, which has long been an unofficial buffer zone between the two sides since the end of China’s civil war in 1949, when the former Chinese nationalist government took refuge on the island after its defeat by the communists.
China considers Taiwan part of its territory, not a sovereign political entity, and has threatened to use force to take control of the island.
Taiwan’s armed forces “monitored the situation (…) and responded to” Chinese activities, the defense ministry said today.
China sends warships, bombers, fighters and support aircraft into the airspace near Taiwan on an almost daily basis, hoping to deplete the island’s limited defense resources and reduce support for the area’s pro-independence leader Tsai Ing-wen.
Chinese fighter jets also collided with US and allied military aircraft in international airspace over the South and East China Seas in what Beijing described as dangerous and threatening maneuvers.
In August, former Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei sparked strong protests from the Chinese government, which viewed the trip as a provocation and launched military exercises around the island on an unprecedented scale.
Taiwan must maintain “combat readiness” in the face of an “imminent” conflict
China has repeatedly threatened retaliation against countries seeking closer ties with Taiwan, but its intimidation efforts have sparked a backlash in European countries, Japan and the United States, which have increased the frequency of official contacts with Taipei.
Taiwan will hold presidential elections next year, but the rapprochement between Beijing and the area’s pro-unification Nationalist Party failed to resonate with Taiwanese voters, who won victory in the last two elections for the Democratic Progressive Party, which has supported independence from Taiwan. the territory.
Taiwan has responded to China’s threats by purchasing more defensive weapons from the US and establishing unofficial ties with other countries, leveraging its high-tech industries and democratic system.
Mandatory military service for men was also extended from four months to a year, and opinion polls show strong support for increased defense spending to counter China’s threats.
In an interview with Lusa, Admiral Lee Hsi-ming, the former Taiwanese deputy defense minister, defended the mobilization and training of the Taiwanese people to resist an “imminent” Chinese invasion through asymmetric warfare tactics.
“We need to break free from conventional thinking in terms of defense,” emphasized Lee Hsi-ming, who is also a researcher at the Project 2049 Institute, a think tank based in Washington, noting that the island, with a population of nearly 24 million, must maintain “combat readiness” in the face of a conflict he deemed “imminent”.
The military admitted that Taiwan was more concerned about defense and security issues after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Source: DN
