Ratcheting up tensions with Beijing, the US sailed two warships through the Taiwan Strait on Thursday, the second such transit through the sensitive waterway this month.
The US Navy’s Seventh Fleet said the guided-missile destroyers USS John McCain and USS Curtis Wilbur made the provocative passage on December 31st. Beijing denounced the maneuver and said Chinese vessels tailed the US warships as they left the Strait.
The maneuver is the 13th US military operation in the Taiwan Strait this year. According to the Beijing-based South China Sea Probing Initiative, that is the most US transits through the sensitive waterway in a single year in over a decade. The previous high was in 2016 when the US conducted 12 such operations.
With US-China relations rapidly deteriorating, the Trump administration has stepped up support for Taiwan through arms sales and increased informal diplomatic ties. The massive $2.3 trillion spending bill President Trump signed earlier this week included an act that reaffirms US support and weapons sales to Taiwan.
Good. Xi Jinping wants to crush democracy and is hated by his own people. Stop trade with China and he’ll be out of power in a year. China is dependent on imports, they can’t fight without imports. Nobody wants to starve for Xi. Sail the ships and let people know there will be serious consequences to aggressive behaviour. China already is trying to steal territory from India, Vietnam, Phillipines, Japan and take over Taiwan. China’s peaceful rise phase is over. Act accordingly.
China should appoint one or two of Chiang Kai Shek’s grand children to the politbureau, as the US still recognises his claim to the mainland.
If he’s looking to crush democracy, he’s already way too late. And he’s already secured alternative suppliers of ag with Brazil and Argentina. And as for imperialism, especially with Taiwan and Hong Kong, he’s reclaiming them from US imperialism; and, except for the recent minor skirmish on the disputed Indian border, without firing a shot in anger.
One doesn’t often see a paragraph with as many untruths as this one. Do you have any proof of any of these claims? The only one you got right is that China does want to take over Taiwan, it’s a China province. So we might call President Xi the Abe Lincoln of Asia?
7th Fleet: “The ships’ transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The United States military will continue to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows.”
Well let’s start from there — that’s something that US and China have in common. The Indo-Pacific is chock full of ships from many countries as seen here in this live display.
It’s not a strait, that is just propaganda. Its 100 miles across. Cuba is just 90 miles from Florida yet no one refers to the Cuban strait and acts like a warship’s transit is news.
“The Straits of Florida, Florida Straits, or Florida Strait (Spanish: Estrecho de Florida) is a strait located south-southeast of the North American mainland, generally accepted to be between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, and between the Florida Keys (U.S.) and Cuba.”
. . .from China’s Global Times: “This sent a wrong signal to Taiwan secessionists, seriously jeopardizing regional peace and stability.”
Yes, the U.S. with its naval presence between China and Taiwan suggests to the Taiwanese that, knowing they have a weak military, the U.S. would defend Taiwan against any China offensive and this is not true. This is not U.S. policy.
Regarding Taiwan, three retired Taiwan generals have spoken out:
General Sun Hai-tao said that Taiwan’s military would not be able to react if its Data Link radar system was attacked by China here , General Chen Ting-chung said that Taiwan’s combat capabilities are “close to none” and its armed forces stand no chance against the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) here, and General Chang Yan-ting said that the military’s reforms, already carrying on at a snail’s pace, have even begun to go into reverse here .
Generals always lie to attempt to boost their budgets. Taiwan complains to keep very generous trade terms with the USA that allowed them to take our entire microchip industry.