Status: 04/10/2023 09:11 a.m
On the third day of its maneuvers around Taiwan, China says it is practicing an “air blockade.” At the same time, a US destroyer shows presence in the South China Sea. In the conflict over Taiwan, French President Macron is calling for a European strategy of his own.
On the third day of its military maneuvers off Taiwan, China practiced “sealing off” the island, according to its own armed forces. Several dozen military planes are deployed off Taiwan to enforce an “air blockade” of the island, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
“Several groups of H-6K fighter jets with live ammunition” carried out “several waves of simulated attacks on key targets on the island of Taiwan,” the Chinese military said. The aircraft carrier “Shandong” is also involved in the exercises.
Pictures of the Chinese maneuvers off Taiwan are shown on a large screen in a Beijing restaurant
Image: REUTERS
Taiwan’s defense ministry said it sighted 11 Chinese warships and 59 military aircraft off the island within four hours. According to Taipei, the aircraft included fighter jets and bombers. 39 planes crossed the previously respected, unofficial center line of the Taiwan Strait Straits and also entered the Taiwan Air Patrol Zone (ADIZ), which serves as a kind of buffer zone to the People’s Republic.
The Japanese Ministry of Defense said fighter planes and helicopters took off and landed from the “Shandong” 120 times between Friday and Sunday. The aircraft carrier, together with three other warships and an auxiliary ship, came within 230 kilometers of the island of Miyako, which belongs to Okinawa Prefecture. Japan is also following the Chinese maneuvers around Taiwan with great interest, a government spokesman said.
Tsai’s visit to the US irritates Beijing
The maneuver, which has been ongoing since Saturday, is seen as a reaction to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s stopover in the United States on her way back from a trip to Central America. In California, the President met with the Chairman of the US House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, last Wednesday – according to the protocol the number three in the USA. It was the first meeting of its kind on US soil.
The communist leadership in Beijing regards the independently governed Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic, tries to isolate Taiwan internationally and firmly rejects official contacts from other countries to Taiwan. Large-scale military maneuvers had been held since McCarthy’s predecessor, Nancy Pelosi, visited Taipei in August. Taiwan fears a conquest by China.
The Taiwan conflict is a key issue between China and the United States. Washington has been committed to the island’s defense capability since 1979, which has so far mostly meant arms deliveries. Observers fear the dispute could potentially spark a military confrontation between the two world powers. The United States and China are also at odds over Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea.
US maneuvers in the South China Sea
In the increasing tensions, the American guided missile destroyer “USS Milius” completed a mission near the Mischief Atoll of the Spratly Islands at the same time as the Chinese military maneuvers around Taiwan. As the 7th US Fleet announced, the US warship stood up for freedom of navigation in the sea area claimed by China and other countries. The “USS Milius” then left the area again.
The reef is in its natural state flooded with water and therefore does not allow any territorial claims under the Convention on the Law of the Sea, the statement said. China’s land reclamation and the built facilities did not change that. “Illegal and sweeping claims in the South China Sea pose a serious threat to the freedom of the seas, including freedom of navigation and overflight, free trade and unhindered business.”
China claims almost all of the South China Sea and has built artificial islands to support its claims. This also applies to strategically important and resource-rich areas that countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines claim as their own. The United States and China’s neighbors accuse Beijing of increasing militarization of the region. The International Court of Arbitration in The Hague rejected the Chinese territorial claims in 2016. However, China ignores the verdict.
Macron for European China strategy
According to French President Emmanuel Macron, in the case of Taiwan, Europe should neither follow China nor the USA, but strive for its own strategy. “The worst thing would be to think that we Europeans would become followers on this issue and either have to follow the American style or a Chinese overreaction,” Politico magazine quoted him as saying.
Europe should not contribute to the escalation of the conflict, but act as a third pole between the US and China, Macron said in an interview with Politico and the French newspaper Les Echos during his three-day visit to China last week.