National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) yesterday said Chinese military activity near Taiwan was “unprovoked,” after Beijing launched its second “joint combat readiness patrol” in a week.
Taipei is on high alert for further People’s Republic of China (PRC) actions after President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan with US President Donald Trump in Beijing earlier this month.
Late on Monday, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said it had detected 21 Chinese aircraft, including J-16 fighters and drones, operating all around the nation, which, along with warships, were carrying out a “joint combat readiness patrol.”
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of National Defense
The Chinese Ministry of National Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The MND published three pictures taken by its forces: one from an F-16 jet of two Chinese fighters trailing a Y-20 aerial refueling aircraft, one of the Chinese warship Yinchuan (銀川) and one of a Taiwanese navy sailor watching the same ship through binoculars.
Writing on his X account yesterday about the patrol and presence of the Liaoning (遼寧) carrier group, Wu said what China was doing was “unprovoked.”
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of National Defense
“The PRC is the sole source of instability in the Indo-Pacific,” he said.
On Saturday, Wu said China had deployed more than 100 ships up and down the First Island Chain, an area that stretches from Japan down to Taiwan and into the Philippines.
Those ships remain in place, a separate Taiwanese official told Reuters.
Speaking to reporters in Taipei, Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence Pan Chun-kuang (潘俊光) said Taiwan also continues to track the movements of China’s aircraft carrier the Liaoning operating in the western Pacific.
China carried out a similar “readiness patrol” on Tuesday last week, the day before President William Lai (賴清德) marked his second year in office.
Institute for National Defense and Security Research Defense Strategy and Resources Division Director Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲) said Chinese warships equipped with cruise missiles are being deployed as close as 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from Taiwan’s shores during these “combat” patrols.
That gives air defense forces far less time to respond, especially as ship-launched, sea-skimming missiles are harder to detect and could hit targets just three minutes after being launched, he said.
“If China were to use this kind of surprise missile attack, it could temporarily paralyze Taiwan,” he added.
Over the weekend, Taiwan said the coast guard had faced off with a Chinese coast guard ship near the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島), which are strategically located at the top end of the South China Sea.
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