Taiwan Warns of Own 'Red Line' As China's Military Edges Ever Closer

[Boats]

Taiwan Warns of Own 'Red Line' As China's Military Edges Ever Closer
By: John Feng - News Week World News - 10-05-22
Re: https://www.newsweek.com/taiwan-chin...9039?piano_t=1

Taiwan underscored its own "red line" on Wednesday after its defense minister said Taiwanese forces wouldn't be moved by China's military maneuvers around the island.

Chiu Kuo-cheng, Taipei's defense chief, told local lawmakers that a serious airspace incursion, and not just a missile strike, could warrant a counterattack by Taiwan's armed forces.

He told the island's Foreign and National Defense Committee that the previous definition of a "first strike" by Beijing would be expanded to accommodate harassment of Taiwanese territory by Chinese drones as well as the Chinese military moves closer and closer to Taiwan's shores.

Lo Chih-cheng, a lawmaker with Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party, sought to clarify whether a Chinese aircraft entering the island's territorial airspace could be considered a "first strike." Chiu replied: "Yes, that's correct."

"Of course, we have a red line. We absolutely will respond," he said.

Tensions in the Taiwan Strait spiked to the highest level in decades in early August after Beijing launched a series of war games in response to a visit to Taipei by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The unprecedented moves included the launching of 11 ballistic missiles, some of which flew over the island before landing in the Western Pacific.

More concerning for defense planners, however, was a marked escalation of China's warship and warplane patrols in Taiwan's surrounding sea and airspace. Chinese military aircraft have also ventured past the Taiwan Strait "median line" on a near-daily basis.

Having done so fewer than two dozen times in 2020 and zero times in 2021, Chinese fighter aircraft and military drones have crossed the unofficial territorial line more than 400 times this year, all but one of the instances happening after early August, according to an open-source database compiled by U.S.-based analysts Gerald Brown and Ben Lewis.

The median line was drawn up by the United States in the 1950s as a way to rein in Cold War hostilities between Communist leaders in Beijing and the remaining Nationalist government in Taipei. Its existence, although unofficial, was largely respected for seven decades.

With the balance of power now overwhelming in its favor, Beijing appears confident enough to ignore the center line separating both sides of the strait, which is about 80 miles wide at its narrowest point.

Wu Qian, China's defense ministry spokesperson, told a monthly press conference in late July: "Taiwan is part of China. There is no so-called median line between both sides of the Taiwan Strait."

Taipei rejects Beijing's claim, insisting that Taiwan's fate be decided only by its 23.5 million residents

"The median line was supposed to be a tacit agreement for everyone," Chiu told legislators on the defense committee. "That tacit agreement has been destroyed."

Chiu said Beijing had created "a new normal" with its military activities further in the Taiwan Strait, and it would be a challenge to return to the status quo. "But we will stand firm when they come. We haven't changed."

The defense official said Taiwan's forces would continue to operate in patrol and training zones east of the median line.

[Additional links on this subject: (on this site only) see below:
* China won't have element of surprise in Taiwan invasion—ex-CIA analyst
* Chinese Navy Shadows U.S. and Canadian Warships Transiting Taiwan Strait
* Huge explosion in South Korea after missile launch goes wrong, video shows]

Hung Tzu-chieh, a researcher with the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, Taiwan's top military think tank, said the risks associated with a new normal were twofold.

"First, it risks an accident between the People's Liberation Army and Taiwan's armed forces," he told Newsweek. "Secondly, China could use another political incident as a pretext to move its military activity even closer to Taiwan, creating another new normal."

"Militarily, if the PLA were to ambush Taiwanese troops in the future, it could give Taiwan's forces less time to react," Hung said.

"I believe the defense ministry's current response is correct. Taiwan won't provoke but has drawn a red line," he said.

Also Wednesday, Taiwan's Premier Su Tseng-chang presented the cabinet's budget for the fiscal year 2023, including a 12.9 percent hike in defense spending, the first double-digit rise in recent years.

The island's military expenditure, after accounting for additional special provisions, was slated to reach $18.57 billion next year.
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Note: Someone asked the following: Felix stated this: 2 hours ago:
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Biden and his neocons will get their war, but they won't fight it. Will they succeed
in putting down China just with just sanctions? Judging by the total failure of the
Russian sanctions, I doubt it.
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My personal view is that there will be a war both with Russia and China
eventually - its so evident that is scares me. They've both been pushing
all the buttons - and let's not forget North Korea. It won't be pretty and
the world itself will be very unstable thereafter.
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Everything they've built up in their countries will be wiped out or
need major repairs - to this if nukes are used contamination will
be everywhere and more folks will die in time from it. Lands
will be contaminated and many freshwater systems will no longer
function. Food shortages and mass starvation will surely factor in
overtime.
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Personal note: It's so close now its scary - and you would think the
leaders in all these waring countries will have very short futures and
the end result is too awful to think about. Lord be with us - of which
many millions will suffer from their actions - all around the globe.
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[Boats]

Taiwan will treat Chinese military flights into its airspace as ‘first strike,’ defense minister says
By: Wayne Chang & Brad Lendon, CNN News 10-06-22
Re: https://us.cnn.com/2022/10/06/asia/t...-ml/index.html

Hong Kong
CNN
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Chinese fighter jets or drones that intrude into Taiwan’s territorial airspace will be regarded as a “first strike,” Taiwan’s Defense Minister warned Wednesday, as the island seeks to step-up its defenses in response to Beijing’s military pressure.

Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng made the remarks while addressing lawmakers on the threats posed by China’s recent spate of escalatory measures, which has seen Chinese warplanes and drones fly near to the self-governing island.

Chiu did not specify how Taipei would respond if People’s Liberation Army aircraft breached the territorial limit, defined as 12 nautical miles (22.2 kilometers) from the island’s shores.

“In the past, we said we won’t be the first to strike, which meant we will not fire the first shot without (China) firing artillery shells or missiles first,” Chiu Kuo-cheng said.

“But now the definition has obviously changed, as China used means such as drones. So we have adjusted, and will view any crossing of aerial entities (into Taiwan’s territorial airspace) as a first strike,” Chiu said during a meeting of the Legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee.

Earlier this year, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said the island’s military would take “necessary and forceful countermeasures as appropriate” against what she called Chinese gray zone warfare tactics, including “drone harassment.”

“We will not give China the pretext to create conflict. We will not provoke disputes and we will be restrained, yet that does not mean we will not counteract,” Tsai said.

Pressed by lawmakers Wednesday, Chiu said Taiwan’s military “definitely has its red line” when it comes to the island’s defense, and stressed that the military will launch “countermeasures” once the red line is crossed, without specifying what the red line is and what those countermeasures will be.

CNN has reached out to China’s Foreign Ministry for comment and is waiting for a response.

Taiwan lies fewer than 110 miles (177 kilometers) off the coast of China. For more than 70 years the two sides have been governed separately, but that hasn’t stopped China’s ruling Communist Party from claiming the island as its own – despite having never controlled it.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has said that “reunification” between China and Taiwan is inevitable and refused to rule out the use of force.

Tensions between Beijing and Taipei are at the highest they’ve been in recent decades, with the Chinese military holding major military drills near the island.

Following the visit of US House of Representative Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan in early August, China stepped up military pressure tactics on the island, sending fighter jets across the median line of the Taiwan Strait, the body of water separating Taiwan and China.

For decades, the median line had served as an informal demarcation line between the two, with military incursions across it being rare.

But Chiu said Beijing has “shattered” that understanding.

He said China has “changed the status quo” and is “establishing a new normal.”

Chiu’s statement adds to the complicated security situation across the strait, following recent remarks by US President Joe Biden that US military personnel would defend Taiwan if the Chinese military were to launch an invasion of the democratically ruled island.

Under the “One China” policy, the US acknowledges China’s position that Taiwan is part of China, but has never officially recognized the Communist Party’s claim to the self-governing island of 23 million. The US provides Taiwan with defensive weapons, but has remained intentionally ambiguous on whether it would intervene militarily in the event of a Chinese attack.

According to the US intelligence community, China is actively attempting to build a military capable of taking over Taiwan – even in the face of US support for the island.

Earlier this year, CIA Deputy Director David Cohen said that while China’s leaders would prefer to gain control of Taiwan through “nonmilitary means,” they want the country’s military to have the capability to take control of the island by 2027, should such a decision be made.
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Personal note: It won't be long now! It's evident that all the buttons are being
pushed and they all know it! Don't be shocked if you start hearing the noise
in the near future. Only God the Almighty knows who will survive once it begins!
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