Important Takeaways:
- US-China Summit Turns Sour as Biden Calls Xi ‘Dictator’, China Vows to Take Over Taiwan
- The summit began with the two leaders taking a much friendlier tone after months of rising tensions, with President Biden sounding optimistic.
- They agreed on a new push to crack down on the export of the deadly drug fentanyl from China to the US.
- President Xi Jinping said China is ready to be a partner and friend of the United States.
- China could use a friend. Foreign businesses and capital have been fleeing China at a record pace.
- The two leaders also agreed to resume military-to-military communications, after they were cut off last year following then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan.
- Things got hotter when a reporter asked the president if he would still refer to Xi as a “dictator.”
- Biden answered, “Well, look, he is, in that he’s a dictator who runs a country that is a communist country that’s based on a form of government that is completely different from ours.”
- The Chinese government responded swiftly and forcefully calling the “dictator” label “extremely wrong” and vowing China would be “unstoppable” in eventually retaking Taiwan, something President Biden has vowed to stand against.
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Important Takeaways:
- China sent 43 warplanes and seven ships near Taiwan on Wednesday in yet another large drill maneuver directed against the small island nation that Beijing claims rights over.
- Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said 37 of the aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and entered the country’s airspace in the early morning hours.
- Taiwanese officials said its armed forces “monitored the situation” and deployed aircraft, navy vessels and ground missile systems in response to the perceived aggression.
- The U.S., which does not recognize Taiwan as an independent country but commits to supporting it, has warned of China seeking to unify with Taiwan, potentially by force.
- Washington is preparing for a potential war with China in the next few years over the island nation’s sovereignty and is rapidly seeking to modernize its forces, as Beijing does the same.
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Important Takeaways:
- Taiwan has made an important move toward modernizing its submarine force, with the launch of the country’s first domestically-made submarine. The advanced diesel-electric design is part of a program that seeks to eventually field eight new boats for a much-needed overhaul of Taiwan’s aging submarine force, one that will still be vastly outnumbered by China’s fast-growing underwater armada.
- Reportedly coming with a price tag of $1.54 billion, the new submarine was built by Taiwan’s China Shipbuilding Corporation (CSBC Corp.).
- According to reports from Taiwan, the new submarine is around 260 feet long and has a displacement of between 2,460 and 2,950 tons. Although unconfirmed, the Hai Kun is thought to feature some form of air-independent propulsion (AIP) system, which should greatly increase the time it can stay submerged and make it harder to detect. Otherwise, the appearance of the new submarine is immediately reminiscent of the Dutch-built Hai Lung class boats that Taiwan already operates.
- A second boat of the same design is now under construction and is reportedly expected to enter service in 2027.
- Eventually, Taiwan aims to operate a fleet of 10 submarines — the eight Hai Kun class boats plus two older Hai Lung class boats, built in the Netherlands in the mid-1980s but subject to a mid-life upgrade that began in 2016.
- Despite Beijing recently talking of its goal of peaceful “reunification” with Taiwan, officials on the island and in the United States have repeatedly warned that, while not necessarily imminent, a Chinese military operation is certainly a possibility within the next few years.
- Many have suggested that 2027 — which also marks the centenary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army — is the year China could be capable of invading Taiwan. Chinese President Xi Jinping has also instructed the PLA to be prepared to conduct a successful invasion of Taiwan by no later than that date.
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Important Takeaways:
- China deploys over 40 planes to Taiwan Strait, is massing forces at coastal military bases, Taiwan warns
- “This year, the Chinese Communist Party has aggressively expanded its armaments and continued to build various types of fighter jets and drones,” Maj. Gen. Huang Wen-Chi said of the report. “The information we have received is that all important military bases along the coast … are being continuously updated.”
- The Chinese military also sent nearly two dozen warplanes on a sortie near Taiwan’s territory Tuesday morning. The Defense Ministry reported that 22 Chinese warplanes and 20 warships entered the Taiwan Strait and that 13 of the aircraft crossed the median line, which has historically served as a demarcation line for military activity.
- On Monday, China deployed one of its three aircraft carriers, the Shandong, to the Taiwan strait. The carrier group sailed within 70 miles of the island and conducted various drills.
- Displays of military power around Taiwan have become a regular strategy for China, often resorting to the practice when a Taiwanese official has an undesirable meeting with the U.S.
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Important Takeaways:
- Dozens of Chinese planes and ships around Taiwan, ministry reports
- Dozens of Chinese warplanes and 10 navy ships were detected around Taiwan, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, after warning that Beijing was conducting air and sea drills in the western Pacific.
- Ten Chinese naval vessels and 68 aircraft were detected near the nation between 6am on Wednesday and 6am yesterday, the ministry said in a statement.
- Forty of the aircraft had crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and entered the southwest or southeast air defense identification zone (ADIZ), it said.
- The Shandong, one of two operational aircraft carriers in the Chinese fleet, was detected on Monday about 110km southeast of Taiwan heading into the Pacific, the ministry said.
- The Japanese Ministry of Defense also said on Wednesday that its navy had detected six ships — including frigates, destroyers, one fast combat support ship and the Shandong — sailing in waters about 650km south of Miyakojima Island.
- It also confirmed that jets and helicopters had been detected taking off and landing on the Shandong.
- Taipei this week said that China was stepping up “gray zone” activities around Taiwan, accusing Beijing of seeking to raise regional tensions and pressure the territory while avoiding all-out conflict.
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Important Takeaways:
- Taiwan warns of surge in tensions as Chinese planes cross median line
- Taiwan’s defense ministry warned on Tuesday of a possible “sharp increase” in military tensions after reporting renewed Chinese military activity including fighter jets crossing the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait.
- The ministry said that on Tuesday morning, it spotted 12 Chinese military aircraft in its air defense identification zone, of which seven crossed the median line – six J-10 fighters and a single drone.
- Five Chinese ships also carried out “combat readiness patrols”, the ministry said, without giving a location.
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Important Takeaways:
- The Biden administration believes that a seismic but fragile realignment is underway in East Asia: a deeper relationship between two close U.S. allies with a long history of mutual acrimony and distrust.
- The change would accelerate Washington’s effort to counter China’s influence in the region and help it defend Taiwan.
- While the summit is unlikely to produce a formal security arrangement that commits the nations to each other’s’ defense, they will agree to a mutual understanding about regional responsibilities.
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Important Takeaways:
- Xi Jinping wants to ‘hollow out Taiwan from within,’ ex-CIA official warns
- China’s ruling Communist Party is preparing for war over Taiwan, but President Xi Jinping would much rather take control of the U.S.-backed Island democracy without a military clash.
- His plan, for now, is to tilt the Taiwanese presidential election in January in Beijing’s favor.
- That’s the assessment of David Sauer, a former U.S. intelligence officer with deep experience in the region. He said China’s strategy is to “hollow out Taiwan from within” and “create chaos” around the election to seat a president who will push the island toward unification with the communist mainland.
- Beijing will expand its operation using “a combination of information warfare, military intimidation, political and economic manipulation,” he said during an appearance this week on “The Washington Brief,” a monthly virtual forum hosted by The Washington Times Foundation.
- Chinese propaganda will also “frame the election as a choice between peace and war.”
- In the wake of the election, China will assess whether to engage in military action or proceed with coercion tactics toward whatever Taiwanese government takes power, he said.
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Important Takeaways:
- WORLD WAR 3: Biden Administration Sends $345 Million in Weapons to Taiwan to Provoke China
- The Biden regime is sending $345 million in weapons to Taiwan as they look to create another proxy war against China similar to the proxy war they have set up in Ukraine with Russia.
- The U.S. made the announcement on Saturday. In response to the news, China has made it clear they will not be backing down.
- “No matter how much of the ordinary people’s taxpayer money the … Taiwanese separatist forces spend, no matter how many U.S. weapons, it will not shake our resolve to solve the Taiwan problem. Or shake our firm will to realize the reunification of our motherland,” said Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of China.
- “Their actions are turning Taiwan into a powder keg and ammunition depot, aggravating the threat of war in the Taiwan Strait,” they added.
- a Green Beret officer said…It looks like it will only be a matter of time until the U.S. is in a full-blown proxy war against China. May God have mercy on us all.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Taiwan’s main airport becomes battleground for simulated Chinese invasion
- Taiwan’s Taoyuan International Airport became the scene of a simulated Chinese invasion on Wednesday for the first time ever as the island’s military conducted an anti-takeover drill to fend off any possible attack from Beijing.
- The drill was designed to test the Taiwanese military’s cross-branch coordination and emergency response capabilities during a simulated Chinese invasion, the Ministry of National Defense previously said.
- With military helicopters in the sky and soldiers on the tarmac, the drill at Taiwan’s busiest international gateway reflects how Taipei is preparing for multiple scenarios in the face of fears over China’s increased military intimidation – concerns which have amplified since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began last year.
- China’s ruling Communist Party claims the self-governing democracy of Taiwan as its territory despite never having controlled it, and has spent decades trying to isolate it diplomatically.
- The drills, which lasted for 30 minutes, wrapped up as the Taiwanese military practiced clearing out residual enemy forces, brandishing Taiwan’s flag in the end to signify their simulated successful defense of the airport.
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