NOS News•
China is holding military exercises around Taiwan for the third day in a row. At the same time, the US Navy has conducted a so-called routine mission in the South China Sea.
“It concerns at least 71 Chinese warplanes and nine ships that have crossed the unofficial border between Taiwan and China,” says former China correspondent Eva Rammeloo in the NOS Radio 1 Journal. “That border is in the water between the island and the mainland, in the Taiwan Strait. Bombers and long-range missiles have also been deployed there.”
The Chinese exercises are in response to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s visit to the United States last week. She spoke there with Speaker of the US House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy. China sees the visit as a provocation. The country considers Taiwan a renegade province to be “reunited with the motherland”. Sanctions have already been imposed against US institutions following the meeting.
Military annexation imminent?
The Chinese state media is again reporting the exercises today. “The Chinese Ministry of Defense says it is an encirclement, with the aim of deterring Taiwanese independence fighters and ‘external forces’,” says Rammeloo. “Experts see such an encirclement as a way to return the island to the People’s Republic of China, so to eventually annex it.”
Whether that will eventually happen is highly questionable, says Rammeloo. “President Xi Jinping always says that he will bring the island back at all costs in the long term, but analysts do not agree whether China is ready for such a military takeover. A blockade seems much more logical, showing that they be able to do so.”
According to Rammeloo, China is trying several ways to annex Taiwan. “Also from within, for example by having better relations with the opposition party Kuomintang, which will compete against current president Tsai Ing-wen in next year’s elections.”
US role
The United States thus plays an important role in the conflict. “The Americans say they will help Taiwan if China launches the attack. We have to wait and see what that will look like,” says Rammeloo. “They already support Taiwan with military means. The US wants to strengthen the democratic buffer in the Pacific.”
The US Navy conducted a mission today with the destroyer USS Milius in the South China Sea. According to the US, the mission to the Spratly Islands, west of the Philippines, falls within international maritime laws. Beijing says the area falls within its territorial waters and speaks of an illegal action.
China and the US also clashed last month over the USS Milius off the Paracel Islands, an archipelago between Vietnam and the Philippines. According to the Americans, they had the right to sail there, but China again saw it as a provocation. Earlier this year there was also a jet incident between the countries over the South China Sea and there was the issue of the so-called Chinese spy balloons over the US.
