The growth of China’s military capabilities is specifically oriented toward countering the US’ ability to assist in the defense of Taiwan, a new Heritage Foundation report says.
“China’s ability to execute a military action against Taiwan, albeit at high economic and political cost, is improving,” the 2016 Index of US Military Strength said, which was published on Wednesday.
According to the annual Index, two of the US’ four military branches have declined over the past year and the others were rated only “marginal” in their ability to protect US interests.
It said that growing US weakness, coupled with increasing strength and aggressiveness from North Korea, Russia and China “make for a growing and dangerous instability in regions throughout the world.”
“Threats against American interests are stronger and more numerous that a year ago,” senior Index editor Dakota Wood said.
“Key regions are more unstable and our military capabilities have weakened further. These are very disturbing trends,” Wood said.
The Index says that China’s long-standing threat to end de facto independence in Taiwan — if necessary by force — is both a threat to a major US security partner and a threat to peace and stability in the western Pacific.
China continues to employ political warfare against the Taiwan’s political and military leadership, the Index said.
“For the Chinese leadership, the failure to effect unification, whether peacefully or through the use of force, would reflect fundamental political weakness,” the Index said.
“There is no realistic means by which any Chinese leadership can back away from the stance of having to unify the island with the mainland,” it said.
As a result, Taiwan remains an essential part of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) new historic mission, shaping acquisitions and military planning.
The Index said that Beijing’s anti-access area-denial strategy is aimed largely at forestalling US intervention in support of Taiwan.
By holding at risk key US platforms — particularly aircraft carriers — Beijing seeks to delay or even deter US intervention in support of Taiwan allowing China to achieve a fait accompli.
The Index said the Chinese threat to Taiwan is “never off the table.”
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
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