While China might not launch an all-out invasion of Taiwan this year, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could scale up attacks on Taiwan’s outlying islands, the Independent said on Tuesday.
The UK-based newspaper cited the US Defense Intelligence Agency’s latest Worldwide Threat Assessment report, which was released earlier this month.
China possesses a variety of military options to coerce Taiwan, including “seizure of Taiwan’s smaller outlying islands, joint firepower strikes, and a full-scale amphibious invasion of Taiwan,” the US Department of Defense agency said in the report.
Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration
However, “China appears willing to defer seizing Taiwan by force as long as it calculates unification ultimately can be negotiated, the costs of forcing unification continue to outweigh the benefits, and its stated redlines have not been crossed by Taiwan or its partners and allies,” the report said.
“China is likely to continue its campaign of diplomatic, information, military and economic pressure on Taiwan to advance its long-term objective of unification with Taiwan,” it said.
Such strategies would also “deter any move by Taiwan toward independence, and test the United States’ commitment to Taiwan’s defense,” it said.
Political observers have long warned that Kinmen and Matsu are the most vulnerable among Taiwan’s territories, the Independent said.
While Taiwan and the US do not have diplomatic relations, Washington would be expected to respond to any Chinese attack against Taiwan and use Guam as a staging point for such operations, the article said.
“Beijing’s contemporary efforts to annex Kinmen and Matsu blend economic enticements, nonviolent coercion, legal warfare, information operations, infrastructure construction, and miscellaneous ‘gray zone’ lines of effort to manipulate public opinion on the islands and erode Taiwan’s control of its territories,” the Independent quoted an assessment made by the Institute for the Study of War last year.
The Washington-based think tank added that China could “escalate current lines of effort (LOEs) to erode Taiwan’s sovereignty over its outlying territory of Kinmen in a short-of-war coercion campaign to seize control of the island group in the near term.”
In related news, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) yesterday said that the equipment and identity of 27 Chinese crossing the Taiwan Strait in rubber dinghies over the past two years suggest “a systematic operation.”
Kuan said they originated from 15 provinces in China, including inland regions, with at least one from each province.
“It is difficult to explain this distribution in terms of political, economic and social conditions,” she said.
The government “has not ruled out” that these cases might be part of a systematic operation in China, given the nature of their claims and equipment, she said, adding that prosecutors and the coast guard are investigating.
Precautionary measures must be taken against Chinese “gray zone” tactics, she added.
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
Foreign travelers entering Taiwan on a short layover via Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport are receiving NT$600 gift vouchers from yesterday, the Tourism Administration said, adding that it hopes the incentive would boost tourism consumption at the airport. The program, which allows travelers holding non-Taiwan passports who enter the country during a layover of up to 24 hours to claim a voucher, aims to promote attractions at the airport, the agency said in a statement on Friday. To participate, travelers must sign up on the campaign Web site, the agency said. They can then present their passport and boarding pass for their connecting international
Temperatures in northern Taiwan are forecast to reach as high as 30°C today, as an ongoing northeasterly seasonal wind system weakens, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said yesterday that with the seasonal wind system weakening, warmer easterly winds would boost the temperature today. Daytime temperatures in northern Taiwan and Yilan County are expected to range from 28°C to 30°C today, up about 3°C from yesterday, Tseng said. According to the CWA, temperature highs in central and southern Taiwan could stay stable. However, the weather is expected to turn cooler starting tonight as the northeasterly wind system strengthens again
Taiwan sweltered through its hottest October on record, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, the latest in a string of global temperature records. The main island endured its highest average temperature since 1950, CWA forecaster Liu Pei-teng said. Temperatures the world over have soared in recent years as human-induced climate change contributes to ever more erratic weather patterns. Taiwan’s average temperature was 27.381°C as of Thursday, Liu said. Liu said the average could slip 0.1°C by the end of yesterday, but it would still be higher than the previous record of 27.009°C in 2016. "The temperature only started lowering around Oct. 18 or 19
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