threat to Taiwan
Chinese planes cross unofficial border line
4/1/2023 6:31 am
China regards Taiwan as part of its own country and makes this clear with drastic gestures. According to reports from Taiwan, there have been numerous flights by Chinese fighter jets into its own airspace in the past 24 hours.
Chinese planes have again crossed the unofficial border line in the Taiwan Strait. The Taiwan Ministry of Defense said in the morning nine Chinese fighter jets and a military drone had flown over the center line in the past 24 hours as of 6 a.m. Taiwan sent planes to warn Chinese planes. Missile systems would have monitored them.
In recent years, there have been almost daily operations by the Chinese Air Force near Taiwan. But now tensions are rising. Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen is currently visiting Latin America. First she visits Guatemala. The most populous country in Central America is one of 13 countries in the world that officially recognize the island republic. Neighboring Honduras recently severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favor of Beijing.
However, Tsai will make stopovers in New York and Los Angeles on the round trip. It is speculated that she will meet Speaker of the US House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy. China has warned that such a meeting would be a provocation that will be responded to. Taiwan has dismissed the warnings. The Washington government on Wednesday urged China not to use President Tsai Ing-wen’s stopover in the United States as a reason to take more aggressive action against Taiwan.
China held military maneuvers around Taiwan in August following a visit by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei. A senior Taiwan official familiar with the island’s security plans told Reuters this week that China was unlikely to repeat such large-scale exercises. However, all preparations have been made in case China reacts “irrationally”.
With its one-China doctrine, the communist leadership in Beijing does not allow any country to maintain relations with the People’s Republic and Taiwan at the same time. Beijing regards independently governed and democratic Taiwan only as part of the People’s Republic and is making efforts to isolate the island of 23 million people internationally.