News Report: Taiwan Will ‘Not Back Down,’ Vows to Defend Itself Against China

The Taiwanese Defense Ministry has bared their teeth, promising that they are ready to defend their island from mainland China aggression if need be. This comes in the wake of a new exchange of provocations and saber rattling between the two.

After Chinese fighters buzzed Taiwanese (and Japanese) airspace by weaving their aircraft through narrow channels of international waters, ministry spokesman Chen Chung-chi appeared at a news briefing.

"The People's Liberation Army has never given up on the idea of resolving problems through the use of military force," ministry spokesman Chen Chung-chi told a news briefing.

"We believe in peace. We will not take the initiative that could lead to war. But we will not back down in the face of threats."

Chen added that Taiwan was ready to defend itself even against a much larger and more powerful Chinese military by both air and sea.

News Story: China on its air drills near Japan - Don't 'make a fuss about nothing'

Chinese Air Force H-6 Bomber (File Photo)

By: Paige Williams

WASHINGTON — China flexed its air power muscles last week near Japan and Taiwan in multiple exercises designed to hone its ability to operate over the sea, according to Reuters. 

On its official microblog, the Chinese Air Force said its aircraft flew through the Miyako Strait, near Japan, and through the Bashi Channel, which lies between independently ruled Taiwan and the Philippines. 

Japan’s Ministry of Defense released a response on Thursday after six Xian H-6 bombers flew through the Miyako Strait, calling the incident “unusual” but not a violation of their airspace. 

The Miyako Strait lies between Japan's southern islands of Miyako and Okinawa, northeast of Taiwan. 

Read the full story at DefenseNews

News Report: Taiwanese Militarization Amid Growing Asia Pacific Instability

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has said Taiwan faces no choice but to arm itself with a submarine fleet, in the face of growing "Chinese aggression" in the South China Sea. In a development that will alter the military balance in the region, Taiwan expects deployment in less than a decade.

Veteran Chinese revolutionary Deng Xiaoping once proclaimed that China had the patience to wait for 100 if necessary, years to force reunification with Taiwan.

It's been nearly 70 years since Taiwan broke away from China, and the Taiwanese have not forgotten the threat.

President Tsai Ing-wen has announced a significant increase in military spending to 3% GDP, and the beginning of the construction of a domestic submarine fleet.

News Story: Taiwan alert on Chinese warships, bombers in West Pacific

Taiwan is on alert while monitoring Chinese jets and warships which carried out exercises near Taiwan and into the Western Pacific on Thursday, defense ministry said.

Earlier, jet fighters, bomber planes and early warning aircraft had flown through the Miyako Strait, between the southern Japanese islands of Miyako and Okinawa and to the northeast of Taiwan, and into the Pacific, Xinhua news agency said.

They then carried out drills with Chinese warships in the area to improve inter-operability between the two services, Xinhua said.

“This exercise is part of annual plans for the navy, is not aimed at a specific country or target, and accords with relevant international laws and norms,” it added in a brief report.

Read the full story at Tankler

News Report: China Raising Threat Level Against Taiwan, but Sparing Drastic Actions

Caina's 1st Carrier Group underway

Ralph Jennings

TAIPEI — China flexed a military muscle and hit at Taiwan’s foreign relations over the past month as warnings against closer ties with the United States, a long-time protector of self-rule on the island that Beijing considers its own. But so far Beijing is keeping more extreme retaliation measures in reserve.

In late December and again last week, a formation including the Liaoning aircraft carrier plied waters around Taiwan, which is 160 kilometers southeast of China. Last month, the African nation Sao Tome and Principe severed two decades of formal relations with Taiwan to recognize China. Last week Nigeria cut informal ties with Taiwan, saying it’s not a country.

Warnings from China

Those moves are meant to warn Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen against growing closer with the United States since her surprise phone call Dec. 2 to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and in light of her trip to the Americas Jan. 7-14, experts say. The United States sells Taiwan arms and has a law allowing it to help Taiwan defend itself.

But China has spared the more salient threats of the past in case Tsai cools toward the United States and seeks talks with Beijing, experts say.

“International space was given to Taiwan, quote unquote, and as someone born and brought up in Taiwan we hate to acknowledge that, but space was given to Taiwan on the basis of understanding that there is no tension across Taiwan Straits,” said Joanna Lei, chief executive officer of the Chunghua 21st Century think tank in Taiwan.

“Once that tension is increased, then it’s no denial that Taiwan’s international space will be reduced, and that will be something Tsai Ing-wen’s government has to grapple with and has to have a reaction to,” she said.

News Story: China statement after Taiwan scrambles jets against Liaoning

China's 1st Carrier Group underway

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy spokesman Liang Yang on Thursday gave his statement over the alleged near-face-off between Beijing’s sole aircraft carrier group and Taiwan’s fighter jets and navy ships.

In a short statement on the Defense Ministry’s website, Liang said the Soviet-built Liaoning aircraft carrier has sailed out of the Taiwan Strait on Thursday morning, after Taipei yesterday scrambled its naval forces to shadow the carrier group through the narrow waterway separating China from Taiwan.

Read the full story at Tankler

News Story: Taiwan scrambles jets against China aircraft carrier enters southwest

China's 1st Carrier group underway

Taiwan defense ministry spokesman Chen Chung-chi on Wednesday said Taipei scrambled its jets and navy ships as a group of Chinese warships led by China’s sole aircraft carrier sailed southwest of the Taiwan Strait.

Chen said the Soviet-built Liaoning aircraft carrier, returning from exercises in the South China Sea, was not trespassing in Taiwan’s territorial waters but entered its air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the southwest.

Taiwanese military aircraft and ships have been deployed to follow the carrier group, which is sailing up the west side of the median line of the strait, Chen said. “We have full grasp of its movements.”

Read the full story at Tankler

News Report: Taiwan Watchful as Chinese Ships, Planes Edge Near Territorial Space

China's Carrier Group underway

Ralph Jennings

TAIPEI — Since Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen took office in May, the government in Taipei has documented four incursions into what it considers its territorial waters. Two of the most recent military movements have occurred since the Taiwanese leader's telephone conversation with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, raising concerns that more Chinese actions will be directed at the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its own.

Since May 20, Chinese air force planes and naval vessels have approached identification zones marked by Taiwan, which is 160 kilometers (99 miles) away at its nearest point, defense ministry spokesman Lo Shao-he told VOA.

The spokesman said China is maneuvering those units, part of the world’s third biggest military, to warn Taiwan. Beijing has claimed Taiwan since the Chinese civil war of the 1940s and insists on eventual unification of the two sides, despite Taiwanese opinion polls indicating a preference for autonomy.

“These regular exercises are foremost for the purpose of increasing the related threat,” Lo said. “The most important thing is to emphasize that their actions, whether done by the navy or the air force, can show off capability.”

News Story: Chinese aircraft carrier spotted north of Batanes

The China’s Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier Liaoning was seen sailing through the Bashi Channel between Taiwan and the Batanes islands in Philippines on Sunday, Taiwan’s defense ministry said.

Taiwan said they are closely monitoring the movements of China’s sole aircraft carrier and five other warships, which earlier passed south of the island on an exercise held amid worsening cross-strait relations.

“The military has been on guard and fully monitoring the Liaoning. We urge the public to rest assured,” it said.

Read the full story at Tankler

News Report: US Global Hawk Drone Shadowed Chinese Jets During Training Exercise Near Taiwan

While Chinese warplanes circled Taiwan airspace on a recent mission, an American RQ-4 Global Hawk drone tailed closely nearby.

China’s dispatch of fighter jets and heavy bombers en route to Taiwan drew the attention of the US, which sent EP-3 and RC-135 stealth aircraft to keep a watch on the Chinese training exercise, a Taiwan defense official told Taiwan News. 

The scenario unfolded on December 10, according to the official. The Chinese fleet of at least ten fighter jets crossed the Miyako Strait, alerting Japan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ). Two Japanese F-15s promptly took off to intercept the Chinese squadron. China’s jets then began heading back toward the mainland without ever officially entering Taiwan’s ADIZ, the official said.

In the wake of US President-elect Donald Trump’s break with a decades-old China-related diplomatic practice, in addition to negative rhetoric about Beijing during Trump’s campaign, Chinese news outlets have called for an increased defense budget to grow its nuclear arsenal. China has sent jets near Taiwan three times in the past month, including deployment of its nuclear-capable Xian H-6K, on at least one occasion.

Just last week, US satellite imaging revealed a buildup of anti-aircraft and other defense infrastructure on China’s artificial islands in the South China Sea. Most recently, China and the US again experienced controversy after China’s navy captured a US underwater drone, but since promised to return what is said to be an oceanographic survey device back to the US. 

This story first appeared on Sputnik & is reposted here with permission.

Editorial: Alarm Over China’s S-400 Acquisition Is Premature

S-400 Triumf TEL (Image: Wiki Commons)

By J. Michael Cole

The S-400 is an impressive system, but China’s acquisition of the system shouldn’t spark alarm just yet.

The confirmation last week that China has purchased between four and six battalions of the Russian-made S-400 air defense system has sparked alarmism in many circles, with experts stating that the new missile will allow China to strike aerial targets over major Indian cities, all over Taiwan, as well as within disputed areas in the East and South China Sea. But before we start calling the S-400 a “game changer,” a few comments are in order.

Rosoboronexport, Russia’s state-run agency in charge of export of defense articles, announced on April 13 that Moscow had agreed to sell China four to six S-400 battalions for the sum of approximately $3 billion. The confirmation ended years of speculation as to whether Russia would agree to sell the advanced air defense system to China, a “strategic partner” that on some occasions has bitten the hand that feeds it, advanced weaponry by reverse-engineering Russian products and producing copies—some intended for export—for a fraction of the price.

The contract was presumably signed in the last quarter of 2014, with delivery of the S-400 to be completed in 2017.

Soon after the announcement, security analysts started portraying the acquisition as a potential game changer. In an April 18 report, Defense News noted that “The 400-kilometer-range system will, for the first time, allow China to strike any aerial target on the island of Taiwan, in addition to reaching air targets as far as New Delhi, Calcutta, Hanoi and Seoul. The Yellow Sea and China’s new air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea will also be protected. The system will permit China, if need be, to strike any air target within North Korea.”

Read the full story at The Diplomat

Editorial: Confirmed - Taiwan to Start New South China Sea Patrols

A US Navy P-3C Orion (File Photo)

By Prashanth Parameswaran

Defense ministry confirms move to dispatch maritime patrol aircraft.

On April 20, Taiwan’s defense ministry reportedly confirmed for the first time that the country will dispatch P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft on surveillance missions in its claimed territory within the disputed South China Sea.

According to the ministry in a report sent to the country’s legislature, while the aircraft are now engaged in anti-submarine reconnaissance and joint surveillance in Taiwan’s surrounding waters and air defense identification zone (ADIZ), the military will gradually expand their deployment to areas outside the ADIZ including in the South China Sea. No specifics were given on either when this would occur or what the specific scope of the P-3C Orion aircraft operations would be.

Read the full story at The Diplomat

News Story: China Incident with US P-8 Sparks Debate on Pacifc Posture

By WENDELL MINNICK

TAIPEI — When a Chinese J-11 fighter intercepted and flew within 20 feet of a US Navy P-8 Poseidon on Aug. 19 off the Hainan Island coast, it set off debate in the US about whether the forward-deployed US military can continue to conduct the types of operations that strategic necessity requires.

US analysts indicate that what China really objects to is America’s place in Asia. Put in these terms, China’s demand that the US cease close-in surveillance operations poses a stark choice: Pursue a cordial and more equal relationship with China vs. maintaining America’s dominant position in Asia. What China is telegraphing to the United States is that it cannot have it both ways. This gets to the heart of American primacy and its role in the world.

“Chinese leaders are seeking to expand their influence over their periphery by building up, establishing new terms of reference for what is allowed and normal, tranquilizing neighbors into accepting growing Chinese hegemony, and supplanting US power,” said Patrick Cronin, senior director of the Asia-Pacific Security Program, Center for a New American Security.

Read the full story at DefenseNews

News Story: Taiwan urges caution as Chinese planes intrude on ADIZ

Taiwan urged China to refrain from doing anything that could increase the risk of conflict across the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday, two days after Taiwan scrambled fighter jets to monitor Chinese aircraft intruding into its air defense identification zone (ADIZ).

Defense authorities disclosed Tuesday that Chinese surveillance aircraft intruded into Taiwan's ADIZ four times on the previous day and were intercepted by Taiwanese fighters each time to escort them out of the zone.

Maintaining peace across the strait and in the region is a common duty of Taiwan and China, said the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), the Cabinet agency in charge of China affairs.

The MAC called on China not to take any steps that might escalate tension across the strait and affect the hard-built mutual trust between the two sides.

Read the full story at Want China Times

News Story: China Defense Ministry Tells US To Stop 'Close-in' Surveillance

By Kelly OLSEN

<< This image of the Chinese J-11B fighter was taken from a US P-8A Poseidon aircraft over the South China Sea on Aug. 19. / US Defense Department 

BEIJING — China's military on Thursday told the United States to end air and naval surveillance near its borders, saying it was damaging relations between the Pacific powers and could lead to "undesirable accidents."

The US should "take concrete measures to decrease close-in reconnaissance activities against China towards a complete stop," defense ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said at a monthly briefing.

Yang's comments came with Beijing and Washington at odds over an incident last week in the skies 220 kilometers (135 miles) off China's Hainan island.

The US said that an armed Chinese fighter jet flew dangerously close to a US military aircraft, while China countered in a ministry statement carried on state media that the allegations were "totally groundless".

Read the full story at DefenseNews

News Story: Taiwan to carry out further military downsizing next year

A planned program to further cut the country's military personnel to below 200,000 by the end of 2019 will be formally implemented from next year, as Taiwan moves forward with its efforts to streamline the military, the country's defense minister, Yen Ming, said Tuesday.

The military is finalizing the details of the new downsizing program and it is scheduled to be formally implemented in July 2015, Yen told reporters.

He said the program will be carried out through 2019, with the goal of cutting the number of troops to between 170,000 and 200,000, from the 215,000 target for the end of 2014 under the current streamlining program.

Read the full story at Want China Times

Editorial: Chinese Surveillance Aircraft Enter Taiwan's Airspace

By J. Michael Cole

On August 25, 2 separate Chinese fighters passed through Taiwan’s airspace on their way to the South China Sea.

The Taiwanese Air Force scrambled combat aircraft to pursue Chinese surveillance aircraft that made four separate intrusions into Taiwan’s airspace within less than 12 hours, a senior Taiwanese military official confirmed on August 26, one day after the standoff.

According to information provided by Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense, the first intrusion occurred at 8:33 a.m., when a single Y-8 Maritime Patrol Aircraft that had taken off from Chenghai, Guangdong Province, passed through the southwestern margin of Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). The aircraft cruised through the zone for approximately 10 minutes at an altitude of about 22,000 feet before exiting the zone and heading for the Philippines, one of China’s principal adversaries in escalating territorial disputes over areas of the South China Sea (Taiwan is also a claimant). The Y-8 passed through the same area at 10:56 am on its return journey to China, again spending about 10 minutes in the zone.

On both occasions, Taiwan dispatched Mirage 2000-5 aircraft to shadow the intruder. 

Read the full story at The Diplomat

Editorial: China May Build ‘Artificial Island’ in South China Sea

By Zachary Keck

The island would be used as a military base to enforce a South China Sea air-defense identification zone.

China is considering plans to build an artificial island in the South China Sea to use as a military base from which to project power, according to the South China Morning Post.

According to the report, which cited prominent Chinese scholars and a navy expert, the artificial island would be constructed on the Fiery Cross Reef, where China already maintains some installations. The reef is part of the Spratly Islands and is disputed by the Philippines and Vietnam.

“China is looking to expand its biggest installation in the Spratly Islands into a fully formed artificial island, complete with airstrip and sea port, to better project its military strength in the South China Sea,” the report said. 

Read the full story at The Diplomat

News Story: USAF Chief - Chinese Air Defense ID Zone Shows Need for Communication

By AARON MEHTA

WASHINGTON — China’s creation of an air defense identification zone over the East China Sea is seen by many as a provocative statement from the Communist nation. But leaders of the US Air Force believe the international community should view this as an opportunity to discuss how to manage air defense zones in the region.

“I hope it’s not a platform for conflict. I hope it is a platform for communication,” Gen. Mark Welsh, Air Force chief of staff, said Wednesday morning at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.

“I think it gives us a great mandate for communicating better with each other and understanding there could potentially be mistakes and miscommunication in this kind of interchange if we establish air defense zones that overlay airspace where we know other nations are already operating,” Welsh said. “This is a discussion that needs to happen, it needs to be an international discussion, we need to do it with our allies and I think we’re heavily involved in that right now. So I hope it’s an opportunity for better communication. That’s the only acceptable future.”

Read the full story at DefenseNews