The leaders of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait inspected the military on Tuesday (October 13), the same day.
President Tsai Ing-wen went to the Leshan radar station, 2,620 meters above sea level, to inspect the Taiwan Air Force’s air defense company, Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) reported.
The Central News Agency quoted a national security official as saying that the Leshan radar station covers almost all of Northeast Asia to Southeast Asia. The national security official said that, especially in the recent period of time, China’s military operations are frequent, and the job of the Leshan radar station is to accurately grasp the missiles and satellites and other airborne messages, make accurate predictions, and give the most rapid intelligence information to all units so that they can respond quickly.
During the visual inspection, Tsai Ing-wen said that long-range missile warning is the most important national defense task. She wanted to thank everyone on this high mountain as the eyes of the air defense, from Taiwan to see the world, from the world to see outer space, silently guarding Taiwan’s national security.
On the same day, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported that Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who is on a tour of Guangdong province, visited the Marine Corps in the Chaoshan region on October 13. Xi stressed that the Marines are an amphibious elite combat force that shoulders important responsibilities in “safeguarding national sovereignty security and territorial integrity, safeguarding national maritime rights and interests, and safeguarding national overseas interests. The Chinese Marine Corps was formed in 2017.
China considers Taiwan to be a part of China. After her inauguration in 2016, Tsai Ing-wen angered China by not recognizing what Beijing calls the “1992 Consensus” and China’s “One-China Principle.” The hawks in the Chinese military have suggested that the mainland begin preparations for “armed reunification.”
Taiwan has consistently denied that it is part of China, and Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ou Jiangan made it clear in January that Taiwan is Taiwan, not part of China, and “certainly not part of the People’s Republic of China.
Since September, Chinese military aircraft have frequently made multiple sorties across the centerline of the Taiwan Strait into the Taiwan Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). In recent days, this has been changed to a single sortie into the TADZ. The Taiwan Strait has become a point of interest in the outbreak of a hot war.
According to independent scholar and political commentator I.W. Deng, who lives in the United States, the crisis in the Taiwan Strait, though not defused, is decreasing in intensity.
He pointed out in a commentary published on October 12 on Deutsche Welle’s Chinese website that Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s National Day speech in the cross-strait section was “both hard and soft,” and that he would not raise the level of confrontation with mainland China, nor would he cling to the United States. The current cross-strait confrontation is decreasing in intensity, although there is still a risk of a shootout in the Taiwan Strait.
In the light of China’s reaction to Tsai’s speech, I.W. Deng believes that the criticism of President Tsai’s National Day speech by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) obviously will continue to maintain a high-handed posture, and that there is still a risk of cross-strait confrontation, and that the crisis in the Taiwan Strait has not been lifted by the “goodwill” released in Tsai’s National Day speech.
The U.S. presidential election is still three weeks away, and it remains to be seen whether the president-elect will make any adjustments to his cross-strait policy. I.W. Deng predicts that the current cross-strait crisis may continue for some time to come.
Recent Comments