Important Takeaways:
- World on the brink as Taiwan admits US troops are now stationed on Chinese border
- American troops are to be permanently stationed in Taiwan, according to Taipei, a huge move that will likely send tensions with China soaring as its president Xi Jinping covets the island.
- According to reports from Taiwan’s United Daily News (UDN), US Army Green Berets from the 1st Special Forces Group are now permanently stationed at bases of the 101st Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion, a Taiwanese army special operations force, located in outlying island counties of Penghu and Kinmen. Notably, Kinmen lies just over a mile from Chinese shores.
- Additionally, reports suggest an American military presence in the northeast city of Taoyuan on Taiwan’s main island, with service members providing specialized training on drone equipment for Taiwan’s elite Airborne Special Service Company.
- Both the US Army and Chinese Foreign Ministry have yet to comment on these developments.
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Important Takeaways:
- Taiwan sends air raid alert to mobile phones across the island after China launches satellite over its airspace amid mounting tensions between Taipei and Beijing
- The presidential alert was sent out to residents’ mobile phones, warning them of a missile flyover and to ‘please beware of your safety’.
- The air raid alert came just minutes after China said it had successfully launched an Einstein Probe satellite from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in southwestern Sichuan province.
- State broadcaster CCTV said it was launched ‘using the Long March-2C carrier rocket… and the satellite entered its designated orbit’.
- China had not previously announced the satellite launch and did not offer any details on its flight plan.
- The alert on Tuesday comes just days before Taiwan has presidential and parliamentary elections on Saturday, which China has described as a choice between war and peace.
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Important Takeaways:
- Chinese Spy Balloons Spotted Over Taiwan Ahead of Critical Elections
- Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense has reported that four Chinese spy balloons were detected floating over the island nation this week. The first was identified Monday, with three more spotted flying over the island on Tuesday. Chinese spy balloons have previously been detected flying near Taiwan, but this is the first time officials have reported such balloons crossing directly over the island nation.
- According to ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Sun Li-fang, the balloons appeared to be the kind designed to collect atmospheric data. “As for whether they have other purposes,” he said, the government “is closely monitoring and controlling the situation, taking appropriate measures, and summarizing their flight paths for judgment and analysis.”
- A similar balloon was found floating over the U.S. in January last year and was eventually shot down. Despite Beijing’s claims that it was merely a weather balloon that had drifted off course, an analysis of the debris by U.S. government agencies found that the balloon carried specialized equipment used to collect photos and videos, as well as other kinds of data.
- The appearance of the Chinese balloons over Taiwan comes as the country is preparing for a three-way presidential election on January 13, in which both opposition candidates have expressed a desire to take a more friendly approach to China than the current ruling Party.
- The appearance of the Chinese spy balloons over Taiwan comes barely a week after former U.S. Navy Seal Erik Prince predicted that China will invade Taiwan during the spring of this year.
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Important Takeaways:
- Xi vows to prevent anyone ‘splitting Taiwan from China’
- President Xi Jinping vowed on Tuesday to resolutely prevent anyone from “splitting Taiwan from China in any way”, the official Xinhua news agency reported, a little more than two weeks before Taiwan elects a new leader.
- China views democratically-governed Taiwan as its own territory, despite the strong objections of the government in Taipei, and has ramped up military and political pressure to assert its sovereignty claims.
- Taiwan holds presidential and parliamentary elections on Jan. 13 and how the island handles relations with China is a major point of contention on the campaign trail.
- Xi said “the complete reunification of the motherland is an irresistible trend”.
- “The motherland must be reunified, and inevitably will be reunified,” Xinhua cited Xi as telling senior officials from the Communist Party.
- China says the Taiwan election is an internal Chinese affair but that the island’s people face a choice between war and peace and any attempt at Taiwan independence means war.
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Important Takeaways:
- China’s Increased Bullying of Philippines to Test US Resolve
- Despite the allegedly warm atmosphere of the San Francisco Summit between China’s Communist Party leader Xi Jinping and US President Joseph Biden, the Chinese dictator reportedly told Biden, “that Beijing will reunify Taiwan with mainland China but that the timing has not yet been decided,” and “that China’s preference is to take Taiwan peacefully, not by force.”
- It is clear that Xi is doubling down on his claim of sovereignty over almost all of the South China Sea, starting with Taiwan, and understands that he might have only a few “good” months left.
- The latest aggressive move by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took place when a Chinese Coast Guard ship deluged three Philippine vessels with water cannon on December 9 and 10. This assault resulted in severe engine damage to one of the Philippine vessels necessitating it to be towed to home port.
- Another vessel found itself rammed by a Chinese boat. That incident took place near the Second Thomas Shoal, an island in waters also claimed by China. CCP bullying in 2023 also included threatening maneuvers by Chinese ships against Philippine maritime exploration for hydrocarbons and natural gas, as well as frequent harassment of Filipino fishermen. In a more serious encounter in February 2023, a Chinese patrol boat lasered Filipino sailors. China’s maritime aggression against Philippine efforts to resupply a military contingent on a marooned vessel on an island in disputed waters of what Manila calls the West Philippine Sea.
- China’s repeated targeting of the Philippines appears possibly related to Manila’s decision to grant the US expanded military presence in the Philippines, by granting the US military access to four additional air and naval facilities, raising the number to nine.
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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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