A Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) training mission in March involving the aircraft carrier Liaoning sailing through waters between Japan and Taiwan, and into the South China Sea, was a maneuver aimed at “hitting three birds with one stone,” a local defense analyst said.
Wang Tsun-yen (王尊彥), an assistant research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research’s division of non-traditional security and military division, made the comment in a piece in the debut issue of the Defense Security Biweekly published on Friday last week.
The Liaoning’s long-range training mission, which began on April 10, took it through the Miyako Strait near Okinawa, past eastern Taiwan and into the South China Sea through the Bashi Channel, could have been in response to two maritime incidents involving Japan and Vietnam, Wang said.
Photo: Xinhua via AP
On March 30, a Chinese fishing boat collided with the Japanese destroyer Shimakaze in the East China Sea, while on April 2, a Chinese Coast Guard vessel sank a Vietnamese fishing boat in the South China Sea.
There were 10 injuries, but no loss of life in the two incidents.
Beijing’s decision to sail the Liaoning and its escort through waters near Japan instead of going to the South China Sea directly through the Taiwan Strait, showed that the voyage was targeted at Japan, but also designed to exert pressure on Vietnam, Wang said.
The Chinese fishing boat’s collision with the Japanese destroyer could be part of an asymmetric move to drive Japan’s Self-Defense Force out of the area, he said, citing reports that the Chinese fishing boat was actually a military vessel.
The incident in the South China Sea was not the first time China and Vietnam had clashed at sea, and Beijing might have wanted to teach Hanoi a lesson about getting too close to Japan and the US, Wang said, citing the visit of the Japanese helicopter carrier Izumo to Vietnam in June last year, and a port call of US aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt last month.
As most US aircraft carriers are docked due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Beijing wants to convey the message that “the US big brother is not reliable” and that the “Chinese People’s Liberation Army is not affected by the outbreak and still can go to your doorsteps,” Wang said.
“With the Chinese navy fleet’s sailing routes, it is quite obvious that China wants to show its muscle to Japan, Vietnam and Taiwan, with a strategy aimed at hitting three birds with one stone,” he said.
However, China does not want to further escalate tensions on two fronts at the same time, as Japan and Vietnam both play important geopolitical roles and Beijing itself is busy handling internal and external problems, including the pandemic, Wang said.
As Japan and Vietnam have strengthened two-way security cooperation, including the signing of several agreements and Tokyo’s donations of patrol boats to Vietnam amid China’s increased assertiveness, any easing of tension in the region is unlikely in the near term, Wang said.
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
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
RSS