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.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- The United States has been planning a potential evacuation of its citizens from Taiwan over the past six months amid heightened tensions over the island between Washington and Beijing, media reported on Monday citing three US officials.
- Among the reasons for starting the preparations, American intelligence officials also cite the conflict in Ukraine, as well as the rapprochement between Russia and China.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- Blinken ruffles feathers by stating US ‘does not support Taiwan independence’ after meeting China’s Xi
- Secretary of State Antony Blinken raised eyebrows Monday, telling reporters the US “does not support Taiwan independence” after meeting in Beijing with officials including Chinese President Xi Jinping.
- Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said on Twitter. “Why won’t this administration stand up to bullies and stand for freedom?”
- The Taiwan issue is among the most contentious in the US-China relationship, with Xi making it his No. 1 priority to “reunite” Taiwan with China — though the island about 100 miles off the country’s southeastern coast has never actually been part of it.
- Ben Cline (R-Va.) tweeted that Blinken’s statement was a “dangerous display of weakness towards our adversaries on the world stage.”
- “The Biden admin is giving China a green light to increase its intimidation of our ally, Taiwan,” he said.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- The U.S. has intensified plans to evacuate Americans living in Taiwan, The Messenger reported.
- The plans, which have been underway for at least six months, have “heated up over the past two months or so,” a senior U.S. intelligence official told The Messenger.
- The report came a day after Taiwan’s air force scrambled into action after spotting 10 Chinese warplanes crossing the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait, as the island’s defense ministry said four Chinese warships also carried out combat patrols.
- The intelligence official told The Messenger that a “heightened level of tension” had driven the evacuation preparations.
- Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, was involved in the 1975 evacuation of Americans from Saigon. He told The Messenger that planning for an evacuation from Taiwan “is a very prudent thing to do.”
- “The fact that the U.S. is doing this doesn’t mean that they expect there will be a war,” Cancian told The Messenger. “It’s only a statement that there could be a war.”
- As of 2019, more than 80,000 Americans were in Taiwan.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- New Cold War? U.S., China defense chiefs square off in Singapore
- U.S. and Chinese military leaders squared off at a major security conference in Singapore: Beijing asserted that its forces are ready for war over Taiwan, while U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin chided China for its increasingly aggressive military actions in the region.
- Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Li Shangfu bluntly told the Shangri-La dialogue defense conference that Beijing seeks “peaceful reunification” with Taiwan, but will “make no promise to renounce the use of force” if necessary to make the island democracy part of China.
- “If anyone dares to separate Taiwan from China, the Chinese military will not hesitate for a second,” he said. “We will fear no opponents and resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity regardless of any cost.”
- Li’s comments came a day after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the U.S. military is stepping up plans, coordination and training to “deter aggression.”
- The competing remarks, in speeches at Shangri-La last weekend, underscored the depths of U.S.-China tensions. The strains were on display ahead of the security conference when Chinese jets engaged in a dangerous aerial intercept of a U.S. surveillance aircraft in the region last week.
- The intercept was followed by another incident this week, in which a Chinese warship sailed in front of a U.S. Navy destroyer during transit through the Taiwan Strait.
- White House spokesman John Kirby on Monday condemned the close call between the destroyer USS Chung Hoon and a Chinese destroyer. “We urge them to make better decisions about how they operate in international air space and sea space,” Mr. Kirby said, noting that the naval encounter and the aerial encounter were part of a growing level of aggressiveness by Beijing’s military.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- Chinese Defense Minister Threatens to Attack Taiwan ‘Without Any Hesitation’
- Chinese National Defense Minister Li Shangfu, making his debut on the international stage, told attendees at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Sunday that the communist nation’s military would attack “without any hesitation” against any allies of Taiwan seeking to support the nation’s independence from Beijing.
- Li spent most of his address at the event, an annual platform for the world’s most powerful military leaders to discuss the future of national defense, promoting the Communist Party’s “Global Security Initiative,” a proposal by genocidal dictator Xi Jinping discouraging countries from acting in the interest of their own defense and instead proposing undefined “win-win cooperation.”
- Li insisted China was a pioneer in world peace, repeatedly condemning the United States – without naming America – as a force for “hegemony” and “self-serving” clique-forming. Li also pressured America to no longer maintain a presence in the South China Sea, where China illegally claims territory belonging to Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines, and regularly attacks non-Chinese ships legally present in their own domestic waters.
- Li claimed that American “freedom of navigation” exercises in the South China Sea, in which the U.S. Navy sails in international waters as a sign of rejection of China’s illegal claims, were in reality “hegemony of navigation” exercises and an attempt to “muddy the waters to rake in profits,” without elaborating. He urged neighbors to “firmly reject” freedom of navigation exercises in the South China Sea.
- Li then proceeded to address Taiwan, threatening to attack anyone who recognized Taiwan’s sovereignty.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- Chinese ‘scorpion’ combat drone circles Taiwan
- Taiwan’s defense ministry said it detected 38 Chinese aircraft, including a TB-001 drone nicknamed the “twin-tailed scorpion”, around the island between 6am Thursday and 6am Friday.
- The drone’s circling flight path took it across the median line — an unofficial boundary dividing the Taiwan Strait — to the island’s south before flying around its east coast and returning to China, a map released by the ministry
- Local media said it was the first time Taiwan’s defense ministry had reported a Chinese military aircraft circling the island from one end of the median line to the other.
- The TB-001 is one of the largest drones in China’s arsenal and boasts a flight range of 6,000 kilometers.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- China Is Preparing For War; Is The US Ready?
- Both the United States and China are investing record-breaking sums in building up their military capabilities. Leadership on both sides increasingly appears to consider such a conflict as inevitable, despite rhetoric to the contrary.
- Xi has ordered the regime’s military wing to prepare for war, and to be ready to launch an invasion of Taiwan by 2027.
- Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc.)… Russia’s ongoing conquest of Ukraine, and the United States’ failure to deter it, contain all the lessons necessary to prepare for what comes next in Taiwan.
- “If we don’t learn the right lessons from the failure of deterrence in Ukraine, authoritarian aggression and the CCP’s malign influence will spread to the Indo-Pacific, and our New Cold War with the Chinese Communist Party could quickly become hot,” Gallagher told The Epoch Times.
- “To prevent this, we have to act with a sense of urgency and do everything we can to deter a CCP invasion of Taiwan.” “If the Chinese Communist Party invaded Taiwan today, we would not be well positioned to defend our friend, our interests, or American values in the Indo-Pacific,” Gallagher says.
- The United States must choose, he believes, to arm Taiwan to the teeth now or come to Taiwan’s aid at a much greater cost later.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- ‘Get Ready’: Taiwan Civilians Train For Chinese Invasion
- The classes are part of a growing Taiwanese urgency to be ready for a worst-case scenario after seeing the Ukraine war from afar and enduring two rounds of Chinese drills in the past year, including exercises that ended last week.
- “When there’s the possibility of a war, I think we should get prepared,” said 45-year-old Lin, who was attending the Kuma Academy’s classes in Taipei.
- “Being on the frontline isn’t the only way to help,” she said, adding her eight- and 12-year-old children should know what to do in a crisis.
- Kuma’s instructors offer practical tips on evacuation preparations, such as finding the nearest air raid shelter and what to pack in emergency go-bags.
- The day-long classes, which cost 1,000 Taiwanese dollars (US$33), end with emergency medical training, such as how to apply tourniquets and stuff wounds with bandages.
- Kuma has trained 10,000 people since January 2022, with classes selling out in minutes after their release as Taiwan residents clamor for more knowledge on how to keep themselves safe.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- Taiwan responds to China’s unprecedented military activity as US destroyer makes moves
- Late Monday, the Taiwan Defense Ministry registered 91 fighter jets and 12 ships from the Chinese military within the space of 12 hours. This is a record-high number of Chinese military aircraft entering the airspace surrounding Taiwan in a single day.
- Of these, 54 aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and entered Taiwan’s south-western and south-eastern airspace.
- After Tsai returned from California to Taipei, China launched three-day military exercises on Saturday. They included simulating several precision strikes on “key targets on the island of Taiwan and surrounding sea areas.”
Read the original article by clicking here.
