Tensions between China and the US over the island of Taiwan have continued to escalate. The US demonstrated military strength in the South China Sea by launching the American guided missile destroyer USS Milius near a reef claimed by China, the Mischief Reef off the Spratly Islands. According to the US, the mission was a “Freedom of Navigation” operation. The US warship was therefore committed to freedom of navigation in the sea area claimed by China and other countries, said the US seventh fleet. Then have the USS Milius leave the area.
China, which claims most of the South China Sea for itself, has built several artificial islands there to back up its claims. This also affects strategically important and resource-rich areas claimed by other Asian countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. 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.
The Mischief 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, according to the statement by the US Seventh Fleet. 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 has created several artificial islands in the South China Sea, for example here on the Mischief Reef of the Spratly Islands.
(Photo: Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)
One of the key issues between China and the US in the region is the conflict over Taiwan. The communist leadership in Beijing regards the independently governed Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic and threatens to conquer it. Washington has been committed to the island’s defense capability since 1979, mostly in the form of arms shipments. Observers fear the dispute could spark a military confrontation between the two world powers.
China is trying to isolate Taiwan internationally and firmly rejects official contacts from other countries to the small island nation. The leadership in Beijing therefore protested sharply against a stopover by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in the United States. On the way back from a trip to Central America, Tsai met with the chairman of the US House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, in California last Wednesday – according to the protocol the number three in the USA. It was the first meeting of its kind on US soil.
A Chinese ship is heading to military exercises near Taiwan.
(Photo: GREG BAKER/AFP)
In response, China has been conducting major military maneuvers near Taiwan since Saturday. During exercises on Monday, the armed forces rehearsed air force attacks on land targets, the Chinese military said. Chinese state television reported that planes and warships had been conducting drills simulating attacks aimed at facilitating a full-scale lockdown of Taiwan from multiple directions.
Chinese state media reported that several warplanes were deployed in the Taiwan Straits on the third and scheduled final day of the military exercise. Military exercises have also taken place northwest, southwest and in the waters east of Taiwan. The aircraft carrier Shandong was also involved, the Chinese military said. According to the Japanese government, the Shandong was in waters off the Okinawa Islands in southern Japan. An important US Air Force base is located on Okinawa, the largest of these islands.
A fighter jet takes off from a Chinese aircraft carrier south of Japan.
(PHOTO: DEFENSE MINISTRY OF JAPAN/REUTERS)
The Taiwan Ministry of Defense said 59 Chinese planes and 11 warships were sighted near the island within four hours Monday morning. 39 planes crossed the previously respected unofficial center line of the strait between mainland China and the island of Taiwan. They also penetrated the Taiwanese air surveillance zone, which serves as a kind of buffer zone to the People’s Republic.