The US and Japan moving the focus of their defense efforts south in response to the threat presented by the Chinese military is helpful to maintaining security in the Taiwan Strait, the Institute for National Defense and Security Research said.
The US and China have ramped up military drills in the western Pacific in the past few months, with the US last month performing the largest Orient Shield exercise with Japan in 35 years, the institute said in a report on Friday.
China’s Hainan Maritime Safety Administration last week announced that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy would conduct naval exercises from Friday last week through today off the southeast coast of Hainan Island.
China’s Global Times newspaper subsequently cited an anonymous source as saying that the exercises would cover an area of about 90,000km2, and that they would likely involve the use of mid-range missiles.
The Chinese government has not confirmed this.
Separate exercises that were planned for July 16 to 21 off the coast of China’s Zhejiang Province were canceled due to the arrival of Typhoon In-fa.
The Ministry of National Defense said the exercises off of Hainan were only several hundred meters from Taiwan’s territory, and that it was monitoring them and was ready to respond to any contingencies.
Meanwhile, the US’ Large-Scale Exercise began on Tuesday last week and runs through Monday next week. The exercise involves five fleets deployed across 17 time zones, and includes multiple aircraft carriers and a marine expeditionary force.
The Large-Scale Exercise comes just one month after the Orient Shield joint drills, the institute said, citing a statement by Japanese Minister of Defense Nobuo Kishi.
“This year’s Orient Shield involved 1,700 US soldiers and 3,000 Japan Self-Defense Forces ground troops,” it said. “Aside from participation by the three branches of military, this year also involved drills for space warfare, electronic warfare and electromagnetic spectrum operations.”
Although no specific adversary was named, the posturing and direction of the drills made it obvious they were aimed at responding to China as a potential adversary, the institute said.
“The drills were clearly aimed at improving the two countries’ ability to respond to threats to the first island chain. They were intended as a show of force to deter China,” it said.
Orient Shield was initially conceived as a response to the threat of a potential invasion of Japan by the Soviet Union, and was expanded to include responses to a North Korea following the Cold War, the institute said.
However, this year its focus was squarely on protecting the first island chain and threats to stability in the Taiwan Strait, it said.
The shift of the US and Japan’s defense focus to the region could help maintain security in the Taiwan Strait and the two countries might also assist Taiwan in the event of a conflict with China, it said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique