A US warship sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait on Wednesday, the second such passage under the Biden administration. The US Navy’s Seventh Fleet said the guided-missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur made the provocative maneuver.
Beijing denounced the provocation. “The move artificially creates risk factors in the Taiwan Strait, deliberately undermines regional peace and stability, we are firmly opposed to this,” a spokesperson for China’s People’s Liberation Army said.
Earlier this month, the USS John McCain, another guided-missile destroyer, steamed through the Taiwan Strait. After sailing through the Strait, the McCain conducted what the US calls a Freedom of Navigation Operation (FONOP) near the Chinese-claimed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea.
As part of its hardline China policies, the Trump administration stepped up passages through the Taiwan Strait. In 2020, the US sailed warships through the Taiwan Strait 13 times, the most maneuvers since at least 2007, according to the South China Sea Probing Initiative.
Besides the FONOPs and the Taiwan Strait passages, the Biden administration has also sent aircraft carriers into the region. Two US aircraft carrier strike groups entered the South China Sea earlier this month, conducting rare dual-carrier drills.
China threatened Taiwan with invasion. It said so publicly. It will launch an unprovoked attack on a peaceful democracy. If democracies are willing to let a brutal communist dictatorship invade and destroy a democracy then China will be emboldened to attack more of its neighbours–several of which it wants to steal territory from. The Chinese government is evil. Chinese people are great, but their government abuses them and strips them of all rights. The government can destroy your life with impunity–no due process–just for saying the wrong thing on WeChat. This is not a government we should be giving more money to, or showing weakness to in any way. I lived there 13 years and Chinese people have told me countless horror stories. They compare it to North Korea, and that’s exactly what it is.
Baloney
. . .from the web…
In 2019, approximately 169.2 million outbound journeys were recorded in China, up from 47.6 million in 2009. The majority of Chinese travel overseas was for personal reasons. [and we can assume that most of the 169 million returned to the “brutal communist dictatorship” which has significantly raised their standard of living.]
“I lived there 13 years and Chinese people have told me countless horror stories.”
You’d think after 13 years you’d have seen your own horror stories and wouldn’t need the Chinese people to tell you about them. I remember when the National Guard gunned down college students. Like that.
Vietnam War propagandistic jargon, with that domino theory. I’ve lived in the US my whole life (minus military service) and know many horror stories right here.
From China’s point of view those bases in the South China Sea make sense, If the US hits the mainland the bases respond, if the US strikes the bases the mainland forces respond, either way it could mean the end of life as we know it on good old planet earth if things get out of hand. So Biden has let the world know he is capable of pulling the trigger now let’s show the world that the US is also capable of being reasonable.
“ US Sends Another Warship Through Taiwan Strait”
Sounds like an invasion