Scholars point out that this time the Liaoning carrier is 400 kilometers away from the Roosevelt, but no countermeasures have been taken as in the past. Reuters file photo
The Chinese Communist Party’s Liaoning ship stayed in place for nearly a day off the east of Hainan Island, sparking heated debate. Ma Zhenkun, director of the Institute of Military Affairs at the National Defense University in Taiwan, suggested on the 19th that the formation of the Liaoning and the USS Roosevelt were in the same waters for the “first time” and that the closest distance between the two sides was only 400 kilometers, “both within the range of firepower of the carrier formations of both sides. ” However, the Liaoning did not take forcible countermeasures as in the past, which also shows that the Communist forces have no intention to create a conflict of their own accord so far.
Ma Zhenkun in a “U.S.-Japan summit and something in the Taiwan Strait” seminar mentioned that “the rising tensions in the Taiwan Strait remain unchanged, and the vicious spiral has not disappeared. Not only does the military tug-of-war between the U.S., China and the two sides of the Taiwan Strait continue unabated, but the intensity is increasing.”
Ma Zhenkun pointed out that in the past, when the Liaoning ship of the Chinese Communist Navy had to leave its home port and go to the sea for exercises, if there was a U.S. carrier formation in East Asia. Usually it would remain one in the south and one in the north. That is, if a U.S. carrier formation is in the South China Sea, the Liaoning is either in the East China Sea or in the West Pacific Ocean at Miyako Island or in the eastern waters of Taiwan, so that the two sides are separated. The first time from the carrier formation strike range, has been considered a “short encounter”.
Ma Zhenkun: “Although so far the frequency of the Communist forces (activities) is increasing, observe the Communist forces in the Taiwan Strait area activities, no initiative to create trouble intentions. Before the Communist Liaoning formation from the East China Sea across the Miyako Strait and then come in to the South China Sea, the U.S. military aircraft, ships approaching and follow, the Communist Liaoning formation and no strong repulsion as.”
Ma Zhenkun, director of the Institute of Chinese Communist Military Affairs at National Defense University in Taiwan, pointed out that the Liaoning and the U.S. aircraft carrier Roosevelt are only 400 kilometers away from each other.
The Liaoning has been “tough” on U.S. ships in the past, but has been relatively restrained in its “range of fire” this time.
Ma Zhenkun cited the example of Liaoning entering the South China Sea for the first time for formation training in December 2013, when the PLA also set up a “no navigation zone” in the South China Sea and the USS Cowpens cruiser entered the “no navigation zone”. The USS Cowpens entered the “no navigation zone” and approached the Liaoning. The Chinese Navy sent two amphibious dock landing ships to intercept the U.S. cruiser, forcing the U.S. warship to issue a “full stop and emergency evasive action” order.
Another incident occurred in 2018, when the USS Decatur, a U.S. Navy SHIELD destroyer, entered the waters of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, and a Chinese destroyer, the USS Lanzhou, approached the USS Decatur, with the closest approach being 41 meters.
Ma Zhenkun also noted that when the USS Theodore Roosevelt crossed the Bus Strait from the South China Sea into the western Pacific Ocean, as many as 25 sorties of communist planes were seen intruding on Taiwan’s southwest airspace ADIZ. The “Roosevelt” is a realistic attack operation exercise.
Ma Zhenkun pointed out that the Taiwan National Army announced that there were 25 sorties of communist aircraft that entered Taiwan’s southwest airspace ADIZ, but the number of communist aircraft and ships that did not enter the southwest airspace but entered the airspace of the South China Sea was much higher. “We see instead that the communist forces are taking advantage of the opportunity to be in closer contact with U.S. forces and are constantly using the opportunity to do actual combat training to strengthen his actual combat combat capability.”
On April 4, 2021, when the USS Theodore Roosevelt crossed the Bus Strait from the South China Sea into the western Pacific Ocean, as many as 25 sorties of the USS Roosevelt were flying in the airspace southwest of Taiwan, including 14 of the same type of J-16 (pictured).
The U.S. destroyer followed the Liaoning ship and the Air Force sent four F-16s with bombs for aerial refueling combat drills
In addition to the USS Mustin (DDG-89), other U.S. destroyers are following the Liaoning, and U.S. carrier formations are also doing combat drills. In addition to the U.S. ships, Ma Zhenkun quoted Forbes columnist and military correspondent David Axe as reporting that the U.S. Air Force recently sent four F-16s from Misawa Air Base in Japan to fly directly to the Bus Strait in southern Taiwan after aerial refueling to rendezvous with the Roosevelt, and that the F-16s were mounted with missiles for direct combat The F-16s were loaded with missiles for direct combat rehearsals.
Ma Zhenkun also cited Taiwan’s Vice Minister of National Defense, Zhang Zheping, who had previously made it clear that the Air Force would take the 30 nautical miles of airspace out to sea as the “bottom line” of air defense, not allowing the Communist forces to approach within 30 nautical miles. Therefore, not only the Communist forces and the U.S. military are conducting combat drills, but the national army is also raising its combat readiness.
The U.S., China and Taiwan have no intention of triggering a military conflict, but are prepared for the conflict required
Ma Zhenkun: “The U.S., China, and Taiwan have no intention of initiating a military conflict, but the three parties are gradually increasing the military preparations needed to deal with the conflict. This means that all three parties are expecting a conflict to occur, so they need to be prepared. In anticipation of this, the U.S., China, and Taiwan have raised the alert level of their military activities in the air and sea space around Taiwan. This is also what I call the continued rise of the vicious spiral between the U.S., China and Taiwan.”
Lin Yingyou, an assistant professor at the Institute of Strategic and International Affairs at CKSU, also said in the panel that many people have doubts in their minds, “The communist aircraft have flown so many times, is it necessary to fly every day and so many sorties?”
Lin Yingyou, assistant professor at the Institute of Strategic and International Affairs at CKSU, analyzed why the communist planes are disturbing Taiwan’s purpose every day.
The communist plane almost every day to disturb Taiwan Lin Yingyou: mixed formation need to rehearse flight
Lin Yingyou analysis, the Communist flight has strategic and military purposes. In the early 60s and 70s, the National Army black cats, black bats completely ignore the “strait line” and fly directly to mainland China, the Communist Party’s goal at the time was “territorial air defense”, mainly to intercept the U.S. and the National Army warplanes flying past. Now the Communist army has changed to both offense and defense, and started to extend its air power outward and strike.
Lin Yingyou pointed out that the Chinese Communist military aircraft fleet is mixed, these aircraft do not take off from the same airfield, respectively from the eastern, central and southern theater, there are bombers, electric reconnaissance aircraft, anti-submarine aircraft, early warning aircraft, so these aircraft must be rehearsed to fly in formation.
Lin Yingyou: “He wants to rehearse the different aircraft types to take off to positioning, fuel consumption, flight time, the national army response is how, not by a single exercise to achieve, but through very many exercises or all the effects of the weather, and even fixed time airspace assembly and drill subjects, and even different aircraft mounted equipment. These are the communist forces in the sea and airspace for flight exercises.”
Recent Comments