A surge in Chinese maritime military activity across East Asia might be evidence that “hardliners” are gaining ascendancy in Beijing’s leadership, an expert said on Friday.
Shu Hsiao-huang (舒孝煌), a research fellow at the state-run Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that deployments of Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy and China Coast Guard vessels — with more than 100 ships reported at sea last week — appear to be Beijing’s response to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s public opposition to any use of force by China against Taiwan.
Beijing appears to be using ships and other military assets already taking part in military exercises to intimidate the US, Japan and the Philippines, Shu said.
Photo: Reuters
The three governments in the past few months have showed an unfavorable inclination toward China’s aims in the region, he said.
China signaling its displeasure with warships rather than diplomatic protests, as expected of nations that follow international norms, suggests that “hardliners” have seized the reins in Beijing, he said.
The showy and bombastic threats emanating from Beijing are concerning, as they highlight an increasingly dysfunctional decisionmaking process that deliberately pursues counterproductive courses of action, Shu said.
The Chinese government’s rude and extreme reaction to Takaichi’s Taiwan remarks might alienate neighboring countries and give an inadvertent boost to the credibility of political factions opposed to Beijing, he said.
However, it is possible that the show of force is intended for China’s domestic audience, he added.
The Chinese naval activities appear to be a test of logistics, and command and control capabilities during a large deployment, said Lin Ying-yu (林穎佑), an associate professor of international affairs and strategic studies at Tamkang University.
The absence of the Chinese military’s air and rocket forces made the activity distinct from the Joint Sword and Strait Thunderbolt exercises of previous years, Lin said.
The PLA for the moment is content with a display of its numerical strength at sea and waving the Chinese flag in the Pacific by penetrating the first island chain, he said.
That means the chances of China announcing another Joint Sword-type exercise are not high, as naval demonstrations are a sufficient flex of Beijing’s muscles directed at Japan and the Philippines, he said.
Observers are seeking signs that China’s Liaoning, Shandong and Fujian aircraft carriers are conducting simultaneous exercise in the South China Sea, the East China Sea and the western Pacific, he said.
More attention should be paid to the type of drills China conducts and modernization of its armed forces, rather than focusing on the number of aircraft and ships involved in excursions crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait, Lin said.
Beijing would continue to use its “salami slice” strategy to pressure Taiwan, with military exercises aimed to compressing the buffer space around Taiwan proper, he added.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
RSS