Things are heating up around Taiwan.
As we reported on Saturday, China has started three days of military “drills” around the island. This followed House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s meeting with the leader of Taiwan, President Tasi Ing-Wen. In response to that the Chinese sanctioned the Reagan Library and Library officials in a particularly lame response.
On Sunday, China simulated precision missile strikes against the island.
They are “practicing” encircling it.
The Taiwanese Defence Ministry said 71 Chinese military planes and nine ships crossed the Taiwan Strait median line.
The line is an unofficial dividing line between Chinese and Taiwanese territory.One of the ships fired a round from its deck as it sailed near Pingtan island, China’s closest point to Taiwan, Reuters reported.
Chinese state media said the military drills would “simultaneously organise patrols and advances around Taiwan island, shaping an all-round encirclement and deterrence posture”.
It added that “long-range rocket artillery, naval destroyers, missile boats, air force fighters, bombers, jammers and refuellers” had all been deployed by China’s military.
Fox’s Lucas Tomlinson reported on the 71 planes being deployed earlier. He’s now saying that they’ve deployed 70 more planes this morning.
There were also reports of a stand-off at the median line in the Taiwan Strait involving 20 ships, half from China and half from Taiwan.
In another concerning development, House Rep. Michael McCaul has said that he was open to sending troops if Taiwan was attacked.
“If communist China invaded Taiwan, it would certainly be on the table and something that would be discussed by Congress and with the American people,” the Texas Republican told Fox News. That’s in big contrast to the situation in Ukraine. If you’ll notice though, there’s a big caveat there — if the American people wanted it, which is likely not a popular idea. It’s still some big words to put out there. While he said it was a “last resort,” according to the reporter, he also said it was not out of the question. McCaul has been leading a three-day Congressional delegation in Taiwan, to signal U.S. support for the island to the Chinese. They were talking about arming Taiwan to deter any action by Beijing.
I think what he’s trying to do with these remarks is brush China back and keep the concept open so they don’t know whether or not we would. A lot of this is a back-and-forth game of cat and mouse, of showing strength, and suggesting we would respond in a way that will be very detrimental to them. If they don’t know exactly what our response might be, it’s one more thing that may hold them off. It’s about deterrence. In the face of the very weak Joe Biden, China has gotten a lot of ideas and that’s why they’re making moves around the world and posturing more against Taiwan. For years, they knew from our leaders it would be a very bad move to take, so they didn’t take it. But with Biden, they may think they have more of a chance and that’s concerning.