China on Sunday launched major drills around Taiwan in response to the new US military aid for Taipei that’s included in the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) President Biden signed into law on Friday.
“The Eastern Theatre Command of the PLA organized joint combat-readiness patrols and joint firepower strike drills in airspace and waters around Taiwan on December 25,” China’s People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command said. “It was a resolute response to the escalating collusion and provocation by the United States and Taiwan.”
The Taiwanese Defense Ministry said early Monday that in the previous 24 hours, it detected 71 Chinese warplanes in Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), including 43 that crossed the median line, an unofficial barrier that separates the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
The drills were the largest show of force around Taiwan since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) visited the island in early August despite warnings from China. Pelosi’s visit sparked the largest-ever military drills around Taiwan, which included launching missiles over the island and a simulated blockade. Before Pelosi’s visit, Chinese warplanes rarely crossed the median line, but Chinese flights across the barrier are now a common occurrence.
Sunday’s drills marked the largest Chinese warplane presence in the region since Taiwan’s Defense Ministry began releasing daily reports on Chinese military activity in the region in 2020. A Taiwanese official told Reuters that during the drills, China dispatched warplanes to carry out simulated attacks on Taiwanese and US warships.
The official also said that Taiwan assessed the exercises that were done in response to the new US military aid for Taiwan included in the NDAA. The US has sold weapons to Taiwan since severing formal relations with Taiwan in 1979, but the funds authorized by the NDAA will allow the US to finance the deals for the first time.
Taiwan will receive $2 billion each year through 2027 in Foreign Military Financing (FMF), a State Department program that gives foreign governments funding to purchase US arms. China hawks are unhappy that the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill that funds the NDAA will give Taiwan the money through loans. FMF aid is typically given through grants that don’t need to be paid back, but congressional appropriators opted for loans over budget concerns.
Besides funding Taiwan’s arms purchases, the NDAA also calls for an increase in US-Taiwanese military cooperation. As the US has been increasing ties with Taiwan in recent years, Chinese officials have said such support could lead to war. In a recent meeting with President Biden, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned that the issue of Taiwan is a “red line” that the US must not cross.
I find it hard to believe the US will halt any of its current course… Taiwan (red line or not) is a favorite US guinea pig….
Taiwan is a dominant producer of computer chips – the US is very dependent upon a free Taiwan – and not interested in needlessly jeopardize Taiwan to provoke China – that is if you believe that the MIC has anything to say.
Tell Biden to provoke China is insane, if the senile old man can understand the stupidity of Nancy and his Blinken team. If he did, stupid Nancy would never have made the trip to provoke China in the first place.
You get a prize for best remarks of the day!!!
You are so nice, and I like it!
Taiwan is the double down of Ukraine. Leave it to the lunatics in state, Blinken, Nuland, the Kagans, and Sullivan.
It can’t get worse, or can it?
Of course it can!
All this military displaying by China just proves that Taiwan needs all the military help they can get.
And of course, the old hawks NANCY and Biden never wanted to provoke anyone, they did not do it.
The nation is in deep trouble, the voter information is locked in at grade school level. a democracy needs educated voters, we are not even close. Add a synchronized free press puts the cherry on the cake.
Fighting the ‘Psyopcracy’
Who leaked that great little bit of news? Consortium is a great source for real news and back ground. A big nail for American democracies casket.
Don’t know.
It is so true.
It looks like the quote came from a release of documents that Parry received.
The MIC needs the Taiwanese account, there is money to be made, such an opportunity can’t be ignored. I wonder how much NANCY’s cut is, a nice income to supplement the retirement.
Right…
Pentagon Warns Chinese Landmass Could Break Off And Zoom Across The Ocean To Get Us
https://www.theonion.com/our-annual-year-best-of-october-1849832023/slides/13
I nearly believed it, when I read it…
Well, clearly it’s a joke, but sometimes the onion is able to tell the greater truth in its most absurd form, in a line or two.
Can’t beat satire, short and to the point.
Subhead: “Terrified Americans Demand Larger Navy, Triple Defense Budget”
Oh and from China:
Before the 2022 elections, Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, had campaigned for her ruling “Democratic Progressive Party” (DPP) candidates with the assertion that Taiwan is an independent nation, and should prepare to wage war….The results were so bad for the ruling DPP that President Tsai Ing-wen resigned her position as head of the party and will not run for reelection in 2024.
Washington has signaled it has no intention of allowing the people of Taiwan to slow down its drumbeat for war…Although the U.S.’ and Taiwan’s corporate media after the election downplayed the role of Taiwan’s relations to Taiwan and Washington’s pressing Taiwan into a new Ukraine-style proxy war against the PRC, it obviously played a key role to Taiwan’s people. An October article in gizmodo.com tells how government officials tried to discount reports that Washington was urging Taiwan to prepare to remove workers to the U.S. from the TSMC computer chip making factory as they spoke to Taiwan’s legislature…
https://popularresistance.org/taiwan-local-election-shocks-us-imperialism/
Can you give us an idea about the cadence and tempo?
I’m sorry, I’m not sure what you mean. The piece is clearly fact mixed with propaganda, not unlike our own news (pumping up the benefits and intentions of the country, China). But I think the underlying sentiment is that although Taiwan might really like independence, they’d rather not become the sacrificial lamb of US hegemony like Ukraine. Does that answer it?
You can click on the link, it’s safe, it’s reprinted from Chinese media.
Editing to add: it makes the point that, in spite of the leadership not being elected, the US has no intentions of ceasing aggression. That will be important when we are told what monsters the Chinese are and how they started an “unprovoked war” against democracy.
Nicely done ED.
What sticks out is the inability of the American political elite of both parties to learn, not even the hard way. After Iraq, Afghanistan and now Ukraine all they know to do is to double down and add China too on the overflowing plate. Sanctions are tearing down the global economy but as long as the American corporations make profits it does not matter to them at all.
They learned. What they learned is that it is a great racket for wealth.
Nice cut and paste. But popularresistance is not exactly a creditable source of news. It is a conspiracy theory to max publishing site. Just read their “about” statement.
KH:
You need to open your eyes, just a little bit wider…
If it does not fit your narrative you call it conspiracy. You know what, there are also real secret conspiracies. But the case in question is public knowledge, the election results were lousy and she resigned, just politics only her resignation is a little unusual.
The piece is reprinted from Chinese media. Please point out what is factually incorrect instead of shooting the messenger. You can search other sources for yourself to find that she lost. You think that’s a conspiracy? If so, you have no grounding in reality.
Sure, but first you have to create the conditions that would make them need more military help. And then when China takes the “bait”, the floodgates open up for the need for even more military help. Ukraine 2.0.
Ding ding ding!
You think so? Only the MIC can benefit from so much largess to a nation which does not need it. In fact the majority of the public does not want to ruck the boat, they have nothing to gain, they can only lose.
“This is your rifle, this is your gun, this is for fighting and this is for fun…”
I think the larger message here should be to keep Nancy Pelosi home.