China’s military exercises around Taiwan have become so extensive they could be used as a “fig leaf” to mask an invasion, the Financial Times quoted the top US commander in the Indo-Pacific region as saying.
Speaking at the Honolulu Defense Forum on Thursday, US Navy Admiral Samuel Paparo sounded the alarm over the rising alliance of China, Russia and North Korea, calling it an “emerging axis of autocracy.”
The trio have formed a “triangle of troublemakers,” he told the Pacific Forum-sponsored event.
Photo: AFP
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) surge of activities around Taiwan in the past few years had made it difficult to distinguish a large-scale exercise and preparations for an invasion, Paparo was quoted as saying.
“We’re very close to that [point] where on a daily basis the fig leaf of an exercise could very well hide operational warning,” he said. “Their aggressive maneuvers around Taiwan right now are not exercises as they call them, they are rehearsals. They are rehearsals for the forced unification of Taiwan to the mainland.”
US intelligence indicates that China, Russia and North Korea’s cooperation has extended to coordinating “everything from bomber patrols that penetrate American ADIZ [air defense identification zones] to shared anti-satellite capabilities and advanced submarine technologies from the seabed to the heavens,” the paper quoted Paparo as saying.
Expressing concern over the rise in PLA activity, Paparo said that the US must move quickly to close capability gaps, including the quantity of stockpiled arms that could be used in the Indo-Pacific region.
“Our magazines run low. Our maintenance backlogs grow longer each month... We operate on increasingly thin margins for error,” he was quoted as saying. “Our opponents see these gaps, and they are moving aggressively to exploit them.”
Paparo, who recently hosted a summit on artificial intelligence (AI), said the US should move quickly to obtain and deploy more types of uncrewed weapons systems, as AI could be a “key tool” to help the US detect early signs of a pending attack on Taiwan.
The commander called for urgent reforms at the Pentagon’s procurement system, saying: “Technology alone is not going to win this fight.”
“Procurement at the speed of combat, not at the speed of committees,” he added.
In related news, the Japanese Ministry of Defense told Nikkei that the PLA Navy last year sailed 68 times into Japan’s southwestern seas, three times the frequency of regional Chinese military activity from 2021.
Speaking at a post-Cabinet news conference, Japanese Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani said that the number included all ship movements Tokyo had positively identified as Chinese military.
Last year also marked the first time Chinese military aircraft entered Japanese airspace and the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning’s (遼寧) first-ever navigation near the boundary of Japanese territorial waters, he said.
These incidents were highly concerning and posed an unprecedentedly severe strategic challenge to the rules-based international order, he said.
Japan would conduct surveillance and take other necessary measures in the sea and air surrounding Japan to ensure nothing can go awry and respond to incidents with calm determination, he was cited as saying.
Additional reporting by CNA
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
RSS