Civic Register
| 10.5.21

U.S. Condemns China's 'Provocative' & 'Destabilizing' Military Activity Near Taiwan
Are you concerned about China’s military activities near Taiwan?
What’s the story?
- The State Dept. issued a statement Monday that condemned the People’s Republic of China’s increased military activity near Taiwan, which featured record numbers of Chinese military flights within Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ).
- Over the course of four days from Friday, October 1st to Monday, October 4th, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense reported a total of 149 Chinese military aircraft including multirole fighters, bombers, and surveillance aircraft flew through Taiwan’s ADIZ. Many countries, including the U.S., Taiwan, and PRC, have an ADIZ that is broader than the national airspace for security purposes.
- The total included 38 Chinese military flights on Friday, 39 on Saturday, 16 on Sunday, and 56 on Monday. The number of sorties on Friday, Saturday, and Monday each set a new record for most daily intrusions by Chinese military aircraft. Taiwanese officials called China’s activities “over the top” and said, “countries that wish to annex Taiwan will be deterred.”
- State Dept. Spokesperson Ned Price released a statement saying that the U.S. is “very concerned by the People’s Republic of China’s provocative military activity near Taiwan, which is destabilizing, risks miscalculations, and undermines regional peace and stability.” He added:
“We urge Beijing to cease its military, diplomatic, and economic pressure and coercion against Taiwan. We have an abiding interest in peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. We will continue to assist Taiwan in maintaining a sufficient self-defense capability, and we will maintain our commitments as outlined in the Three Communiqués, the Taiwan Relations Act, and the Six Assurances. The U.S. commitment to Taiwan is rock solid and contributes to the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and within the region. We will continue to stand with friends and allies to advance our shared prosperity, security, and values and deepen our ties with democratic Taiwan.”
- Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials, including General Secretary Xi Jinping, have made reunification with Taiwan a priority in what they see as an “unshakeable commitment” the China’s ascent into a position of global leadership. The CCP regards Taiwan (also known as the Republic of China or ROC) ― which is a self-governing democracy ― as a rogue province and has threatened to compel a reunion by military force across the 110 mile-wide Taiwan Strait if the ROC pursues formal independence.
- U.S. defense officials have expressed increasing concern in recent years about the growing capability of the CCP to attempt to seize Taiwan by force, with some predicting that an invasion could occur in the next six years, with or without Taiwan pursuing international recognition as its own country. While an invasion could be preceded by an increased level of Chinese military flights in Taiwan’s ADIZ, the recent flights could be saber-rattling meant to intimidate Taiwan and its allies without being a prelude to war.
- October has historically been a time of significant friction between the PRC and Taiwan. The PRC celebrates its National Day on October 1st while Taiwan celebrates its National Day on October 10th. The origins of both governments lie in the communists’ victory over the nationalists in the Chinese Civil War, which prompted the nationalists to flee to Taiwan.
- China’s recent military flights in Taiwan’s ADIZ could also be a response to recent training by the U.S. military and several allied militaries in the Western Pacific. Notably, four aircraft carriers ― including the American carriers USS Ronald Reagan and USS Carl Vinson, the British HMS Queen Elizabeth, and the Japanese JS Ise ― maneuvered along with supporting warships from allied navies over the weekend in the Philippine Sea near Taiwan, Okinawa, and the Philippine island of Luzon.
RELATED READING
- Senate’s China Competition Bill Aims to Bolster U.S. Support for Taiwan - Are You in Favor? (6/7/21)
- Blinken Warns China Using Military Force Against Taiwan Would Be ‘Serious Mistake’ (4/12/21)
— Eric Revell
(Photo Credit: U.S.-Taiwan: iStock.com / avdeev007 | Chinese Bomber: alert5 via Wikimedia / Creative Commons)
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The U.S. must defend Taiwan against all China’s attempts to dominate & control Taiwan!
Congress are in bed with communist china
I trust Chinese military aggression even less than I trust America military aggression.
That’s what they do! -everywhere. Kill them with ‘kindness’-ie: endless Diplomacy! Keep them talking. This way they can be distracted from stirring up other shit just for the helluv it.
the Chinese Communist party is a disease just like the soviets/russians were/are.
Our President Joe Biden is demonstrating his strong International leadership by pivoting the US Armed Forces to China while enlisting our allies in this noble cause. Biden is doing this after Fascist Herr Trump’s disastrously Failed so-called “America First” fiasco. Biden is doing what has been unheard of in the 21st C. Meanwhile, Texas Three Stooges continues supporting Idiot Trump by attempting to block Democrats military programs thereby putting Americans in harms way. How dumb is that?
no good solution. No one wants war, so who blinks first? From Taiwan's view they have never been under their rule so will not fold. But ultimately would not win a bloody war. So from China's shoes, is it worth it or how far can they push it? Currently they perceive us as weak
Mitch McConell has a ship building company in China, Pelosi's net worth is 1/2 Billion Dollar's, They have sold America.
I don't think Biden will stop China from taking Taiwan. Everything he has done has gone to crap. He is our worst President.
I am concerned because Biden is a weak leader and is beholden to the Chinese via Hunter.
Regardless of my opinion, chicken little Biden is not going to help Taiwan. He may have words, and maybe even a complete sentence, but he will take no action. After all this president feels it is ok to harass and film women in the bathroom that do not agree with him. He cheers on members of Congress telling people to get confrontational to get their way. He sped out of Afghanistan faster than the road runner after he was told it would fail if he pulled out. He chides the former administration while his son takes in money off his name (I’ve seen better street art than from hunter) He is not “allowed” to take questions, or talk to reporters. When he does say what he thinks, many people have to clean up the mess. If this is how adults function, which was the reason he was elected, what is that teaching our children. Except for scripted remarks, he hides from the press in a way only bin laden could have. Either he is being controlled by someone else or he is losing it. He cannot stand up for anything he said he believed. Conspiracy theory: Trump still running the country using Biden as a hand puppet? (Biden confused over length of colonoscopy)
Years ago when the US recognized communist China, it was a horrible decision. Having had a friend who’s father had been a judge in China & fled with his family to Taiwan because of death threats I was disappointed in our choice. Her father had sent his children to different judges he knew in the US to keep them safe. She introduced me to a cadet in the Taiwanese Navy & we wrote for several years as he finished the Naval academy & became a Captain. He told me of training with our Navy. So how could we turn our backs on a friend just because China was a larger market? It was sickening. If we don’t at least support Taiwan’s freedom, what will happen when China infringes on the rest of the Pacific? China already own acres of farmland & businesses in the US. When do we say stop?
Joe Biden is Weak. And everyone knows it. Sad day in the United States. Need Trump Back. Best President Ever
Lynn E: Thanks. Unfortunately our country which champions capitalism and free markets really does little to reward pure capitalism. The funds flowing to legislators has led to a bastardized form of capitalism, crony capitalism. It is much cheaper with a better ROI to buy political favor to ensure corporate cash flows, than it is to compete with others by producing better products and services. This is not true on the international stage and competitive capitalism has resulted in many better products and services from foreign companies who compete to make better products and services. Look at most consumer products which were invented and initially made here that are no longer - and the companies that led the way that have shriveled away, because they did not have to compete because it was more cost effective to buy political favor. … . … Look at the Army of big-pharma and big-oil lobbyists swarming over the Capitol now. I believe I heard that there were 1400 lobbyists in DC currently arguing to prevent Medicare or any other government agency from negotiating prices for prescription drugs. I see the ongoing TV ads about how the oil and gas industry needs to be supported as innovators which they may be, but that has nothing to do with the need to seriously cut the use of fossil fuels and see this industry radically downsized. ….….… I am truly tired and disgusted with the connection between our politicians and those that can afford to buy their political favor. The fastest way to rid our country of the Republican Faction (which is disguised as a political party) is to eliminate big-money donors- they would no longer be able to enrich themselves, and would lose the desire to stay in office. Money corrupts and big-money corrupts ‘bigly’.
I dont think it’s so much that we view China as a military threat to America as we desire for America to become a military threat to China.
China has long laid historical claims to much of the sea lanes and some of the sovereign territories of the South China Sea. They have avoided involvement in military confrontations since the Korean War. They instead turned their attention to rapidly building their economy, covert and overt methods to take intellectual property from other countries, building a fairly advanced military capability, quietly building military facilities in the South China Sea by dredging and expanding strategically placed islands, buying international mining rights to strategic materials such as rare earth mines and have been building infrastructure for lesser countries who are beholding to them and can provide military staging areas. … … … The threat to Taiwan is magnified by China’s inability to build a state of the art chip-manufacturing capability. Taiwan has developed an industry and manufacturing capability with the highest density, lowest power chips that are being mass produced for use in Apple products (who helped develop the process for use in their products). Instead of raw material resources, this manufacturing capability has become a strategic resource. Further, the threat to Taiwan is magnified by the US withdrawal from the region and abandonment of Southern Pacific alliances, the cancelation of war games with South Korea and probably most importantly, not paying much attention to what China has been quietly building over the last fifty years. … … … The Chinese have been constantly testing the limits of what they can do militarily for years. Their aircraft have ‘buzzed’ too close to ours and our military ships to test our response. They have launched satellites that carry an array of individually maneuverable sub satellites that have been positioned near military communication satellites close enough to monitor transmissions, block or disrupt them or even disable them. They have also demonstrated deep sea submersibles and maneuvered them to the deepest most inaccessible areas over transatlantic communication cables - with the capability of cutting off communications between the US and Europe should satellite communications be disrupted. … … … This has all happened as the US and European allies were all focused on Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Russian expansionism and the North Korean antics. Meanwhile our endorsement and much of the free world’s endorsement of minimally regulated free market economies was also strategically exploited by the Chinese. They took on the world’s manufacturing at a discount, leveraging their huge population to take on the manual procedures that have allowed them to become the world’s manufacturer of pharmaceuticals, textiles, advanced electronic system assembly and much of everything else. This gives them a huge strategic advantage which we largely have just given to them - because our many wars across the globe seemed more important. I am sure that there were some military and civilian analysts which saw this coming but our free market economy advocates simply did not care about long term consequences of our country’s inaction because, as always, their focus was solely on near term profits and not on long term risks. It is why we have become so ill-prepared to address the Climate Crisis despite decades of warnings. … … … The Chinese people are much more affluent then they were 50 years ago, their countries infrastructural advancements over 50 years are amazing and I would guess that the mainland Chinese people are fairly content with their governance. There is and will be no realistic challenge to China’s continued probing of the limits to their expansionism until the world of nations come together and react. … … … The last four years of the trump’s abandonment of the region and regional alliances, his disastrous handling of the trade war with China (There were very important issues to resolve but the trump’s wrecking-ball diplomacy just made things much worse and economically very costly) , his racist rants blaming China for his ineptness in responding to the pandemic have all encouraged China to start flexing it’s military and economic muscles. I mean why not, the leader of the free world challenged them. The less pushback from the rest of the world, the more emboldened they will become. … … … To be clear, our country’s greed, China’s long term strategic focus and our county’s leadership’s inability or unwillingness to think strategically over the long term have all been major contributors to the Chinese expansionism - which will continue if the world cannot muster the will to diplomatically push back.
This is Nazi Germany and Czechoslovakia in 1938, 83 years later. "Peace in our time." Yeah.
Frank-001: I do not admire China’s methods or the tactics used to reach their strategic goals. I do admire that they have strategic goals and are willing to stay the course to meet them by anticipating change and making decisions pro-actively for the long term instead of reactivity to whatever seems important at this moment. Our country has a tremendous guiding philosophy that defines our national values with regard to the interactions of the piece-parts of our governance - that works quite well until a political faction chooses to ignore those values for their party’s self interests. We have historically placed a great value on alliances, until the trump single-handedly destroyed much of that, these are our unquestionable strengths when we respect our values and ‘play-fair’ with each other and other countries. These are strengths that China, as an authoritarian governance, can never attain. What we do not have is a collective purpose for the future, an outline of what our country should be, what threats we need to be aware of, and generally what we want our place in the world to be. Fifty years ago China recognized that the five and ten year plans telling people what they must do was ineffective and they instituted a strategic policy to encourage ‘entrepreneurialism’ as essentially a version of capitalism where successful risk-taking was rewarded, but not overly so and with a requirement to be beneficial to their country. This has been a core tenant that has contributed to their growth. … … … I have long advocated that our legislative processes be placed within a clearly stated strategic context as a first test. Further, I would look for clearly stated short legislative packages with an upfront carefully worded statement of the intent of the legislation with instructions to appropriate agencies - instead of thousand of pages of boiler plate to cover as many possible contingencies that they can envision. Much shorter legislative packages that cover broader goals and much stronger congressional oversight to ensure that the actions of performing agencies are consistent with the intent of the legislation. Let the agencies develop the details. This would also eliminate the legal trickery that says if something is not specifically called out as illegal, it must be OK. No! If it runs counter to the stated intent, it is illegal. This would force the judiciary to do a little work to judge whether or not some act was illegal instead of being grammarians who can make judgements based on the improper placement of a comma or a misspelled word. … … … This would all work under the umbrella of a long term strategy of what we want our country to be and what we want our country’s role in the world to be - which would have to be agreed to by both the House and the Senate initially and as needed changes are made they would have to be agreed to by both the House and the Senate - and can be used as a gage to assess the value of new legislative initiatives. … … … I do admire long term proactive strategic thinking and encoding that into a broad encompassing carefully worded strategic document, much as the bill of rights captures the guiding philosophy and values that should underpin our governance. Most business interests are focused on nearer term, five year or less investment strategies - not a long enough horizon for geo-political goals.
China is flexing their power.
Absolutely concerned..Biden isn't respected by China or any other Country....We need Trump