TAIPEI, Taiwan: Taiwan has scrambled fighter jets, put its navy on alert and activated missile systems in response to nearby operations of 34 Chinese military aircraft and nine warships that are part of Beijing’s strategy to unsettle and intimidate the island.
The large-scale Chinese deployment comes as Beijing increases preparations for a potential blockade or outright attack on Taiwan that has stirred major concerns among military leaders in the United States, Taiwan’s key ally.
In a memo last month, US Air Force General Mike Minihan instructed officers to be prepared for a US-China conflict over Taiwan in 2025. As head of Air Mobility Command, Minihan has a keen understanding of the Chinese military and his personal remarks echo calls in the US for heightened preparations.
Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said that 20 Chinese aircraft on Tuesday (Jan 31) crossed the central line in the Taiwan Strait that has long been an unofficial buffer zone between the sides, which divided amid civil war in 1949.
China claims Taiwan as its own territory to be taken by force, while the vast majority of Taiwanese are opposed to coming under the control of China’s authoritarian Communist Party.
Taiwan’s armed forces “monitored the situation … to respond to these activities” the Defence Ministry said Wednesday.
China has sent warships, bombers, fighter jets and support aircraft into airspace near Taiwan on a near-daily basis, hoping to wear down the island’s limited defence resources and undercut support for pro-independence President Tsai Ing-wen.
Chinese fighter jets have also confronted military aircraft from the US and allied nations over international airspace in the South China and East China seas, in what Beijing has described as dangerous and threatening manoeuvres.
A string of visits in recent months by foreign politicians to Taiwan, including by then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and numerous politicians from the European Union, spurred displays of military might from both sides.
In response to Pelosi’s visit in August, China staged war games surrounding the island and fired missiles over it into the Pacific Ocean.
Source: CNA
