Sorties by the Chinese navy into the Pacific Ocean are becoming more commonplace and provide it with the means to familiarize itself with the environment surrounding Taiwan, while creating a new front from which to attack in case of conflict, an analyst said.
Four frigates from the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) were spotted in waters between Miyako Island and Okinawa Island on Friday, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said last week. All four ships, which were tracked by a P-3C patrol aircraft deployed by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Forces, were traveling from the direction of the East China Sea toward the Pacific Ocean, where they conducted exercises.
The ships — the Type 054A Jiangkai II-class missile frigate Changzhou, the Jiangwei II-class Jiangxing and Lianyungang and the Jiangwei I-class Tongling — stayed in international waters and did not enter Japanese territorial waters, the ministry said.
Source: screengrab from Google Map
All the ships, which are part of China’s East Sea Fleet, are equipped with anti-ship and surface-to-air missiles.
The 300km-wide channel between Okinawa and Miyako, known as the Miyako Strait, is regarded as one of the most convenient routes for Chinese vessels heading for the Pacific. Chinese vessels went through it in June 2010 and twice last year as they headed for exercises in the Pacific.
Such sorties have become increasingly commonplace as China’s navy gets more comfortable as an oceangoing navy, James Holmes, an associate professor at the US Naval War College, told the Taipei Times.
Holmes, who recently co-authored a study of the Chinese navy, said the Japanese Defense Ministry was now publishing maps of Chinese naval forays through the Japanese archipelago.
“The maps depict the tracks of PLAN flotillas as though ramen noodles were spilling through the home islands into the Pacific,” he said, adding that in peacetime, China had as much a right as anyone to transit through those waterways, provided they conformed to the restrictions in the Law of the Sea Treaty.
However, asked to discuss the implications for Taiwan’s security, Holmes was less sanguine.
“I have no doubt that the PLAN is familiarizing itself with the operating environment off Taiwan, including the coastal geography and underwater hydrography, and experimenting with tactics for waging war there,” he said.
“Some strategists, myself included, portray [Taiwan’s] rugged eastern coast as a kind of sanctuary for small missile boats and, potentially, submarines,” Holmes said. “It only makes sense for the PLAN to take the measure of the ‘strength and situation’ of a potential enemy before an armed clash.”
Crucially, the PLAN presence in the Pacific enhances its ability to fight all around Taiwan and not just along the west coast, which has been the traditional direction from which a Chinese attack would come, he said.
Miyako is located about 350km east off the northern tip of Taiwan, including Keelung Naval Base. The area also faces Cha Shan Air Base in Hualien.
Such encirclement of Taiwan would greatly complicate its ability to counter a naval attack and could exploit weaknesses in defenses along its east coast, which faces away from China.
“Equally important, by displaying that capability vis-a-vis Taipei and Washington, the navy enhances Beijing’s bargaining power in future dealings across the strait,” Holmes said. The PLA Navy is practicing the skills needed to coerce and deter while helping underwrite Chinese diplomacy in the bargain.”
In related developments, the People’s Liberation Army Daily announced on Tuesday that the recently commissioned Type 071 Jinggangshan landing platform dock under the South China Sea Fleet had conducted its first joint training with helicopters and air cushion boats. At 19,000 tonnes, the Jinggangshan is the heaviest LPD in the PLAN.
LAND ALERT UNCERTAIN: The CWB was waiting to observe how In-Fa shifts as it moves north to determine when to issue a land alert, a forecaster at the bureau said Residents of northern Taiwan should brace for heavy rain today and tomorrow as Typhoon In-Fa approaches the northeast, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said yesterday. A land alert for the typhoon would be issued depending on the angle at which it moves north today, the bureau said. The bureau on Wednesday issued a sea alert for the typhoon, which applies to ships operating off the nation’s northern, northeastern and southeastern coasts. As of 8:30pm yesterday, In-Fa’s center was 470km southeast of Taipei, moving northwest at 6kph. It was carrying maximum sustained winds of 180kph, and had a radius of 200km. The typhoon was moving
‘BREAKTHROUGH’: All countries should be free to pursue closer ties with Taiwan, a leading democracy, a major economy, and a force for good in the world, the AIT said Taiwan is to establish a “Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania,” the first office in Europe to be called Taiwanese, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced yesterday. “It is an important diplomatic breakthrough,” President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) wrote on Facebook, thanking diplomatic personnel for the significant achievement. To expand the nation’s relations with central and eastern Europe, especially with Baltic nations, the government decided to establish the office in Vilnius, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) told an online news conference. The plan signals progress in Taiwan-Europe relations, as it has been 18 years since the nation last opened an office on the
TARGET RAISED: The CECC said vaccination coverage has reached 24.35%, while Premier Su Tseng-chang said the government hopes for 30% by the end of July The government has signed a contract to buy an additional 36 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, 1 million of which are to be delivered in the fourth quarter, the Executive Yuan announced yesterday, as it updated its vaccination target to 30 percent coverage by the end of the month. The two-year deal with the US company covers “prime series” vaccines and future booster shots to protect against SARS-CoV-2 variants, Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) quoted Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) as saying during an Executive Yuan meeting in Taipei. In the two weeks since vaccine registration opened, more than 9.8
STAY VIGILANT: Although a level 2 alert would raise the limit on indoor gatherings to 50, people should still wear masks and practice social distancing, the center said A nationwide COVID-19 alert is to be lowered from level 3 to 2 on Tuesday, but strict border controls would remain, the government said yesterday. The level 3 alert in place since May 19 is to end on Monday, with a level 2 alert in place from Tuesday until Aug. 9, the Executive Yuan said. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), told a news conference in Taipei that over the next two weeks, people should still wear masks at all times outdoors, except while eating or drinking, and practice social distancing. The maximum
RSS