Taiwan warned it faces “severe military challenges” from surging Chinese military activity edging closer to the island, as Beijing tries to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.
(Bloomberg) — Taiwan warned it faces “severe military challenges” from surging Chinese military activity edging closer to the island, as Beijing tries to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.
Taipei expects the People’s Liberation Army to continue sending warships and jets across the median line that divides the waterway, the island’s Ministry of National Defense said in an annual report to lawmakers seen by Bloomberg News.
The document said Beijing had used military drills following US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit earlier this month as an excuse to “verify its execution ability” of not only simulating a blockade around the island, but also diplomatic and economic tools of retaliation.
Chinese warplanes have breached the median line on a near-daily basis since the California democrat’s trip, shrinking the tacit buffer zone that’s kept the peace for decades. Breaching the line was previously a rare occurrence. Taiwan has also reported spotting an average of seven Chinese warships in the “surrounding region” every day since the US politician departed.
Beijing responded to Pelosi becoming the highest ranking US official in a quarter century to visit Taipei with unprecedented military drills around Taiwan that included firing ballistic missiles over its main island for the first time. China claims Taiwan as its territory and protests official exchanges with Taipei.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused China of seeking to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait in the wake of those actions. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a news briefing this month it was “the US and Taiwan separatist forces, not China, that seeks to change the status quo across the Taiwan Strait.”
Taipei’s defense officials wrote the August drills substantially threatened the island’s national security, and warned that going forward China was likely to put more aircraft and warships closer to Taiwan’s territorial sea and air space, and use further missile tests to “create panic” in a game of psychological warfare.
Chinese warships stayed at least 24 nautical miles away from Taiwan’s coast during the drills despite warnings from Beijing they could come well within the island’s territorial waters, according to senior government officials in Taipei.
Other actions China could take against Taiwan listed in the report included a joint sea and air blockade, seizing an offshore island and a “decapitation strike operation.”
Earlier Wednesday, Taiwan said its military was stockpiling US-made weaponry that Ukraine had used to hold off Russia’s military, as Taipei tried to deter China from following through on threats to take the island by force if necessary.
An order for Javelin anti-tank missiles had entered the production and delivery phase, said Taiwan Army Chief of Staff Chang Yuan-shiun. While the military intended to increase its order of HIMARS long-range artillery weaponry to 29 from the 11 planned, according to the semi-official Central News Agency, which cited a defense budget report.
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