Show of Force by Beijing Follows Free Chinese President’s Parley With McCarthy

The Communist regime at Beijing seems to want everyone in the Republic of China on Taiwan to know exactly how it would attack key targets on what it considers a breakaway province if President Xi Jinping decides to order an invasion.Looking ahead after three days of exercises around Taiwan, China’s military command seemed supremely confident of its ability to smash what China’s leaders fear most: recognition of Taiwan as an independent state. Chinese troops, said the command, can “resolutely smash any form of ‘Taiwan independence’ and foreign interference attempts.”No sooner had the president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, got back to Taipei after a session with the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, at the Ronald Reagan Library near Los Angeles than the state news agency Xinhua lectured on the need for “strong countermeasures to deter the ‘Taiwan independence’ secession forces and sternly warn against interference from external forces.”The dispatch, of course, neglected to mention that Ms. Tsai has specifically not called for Taiwan’s independence as a separate country from the Chinese mainland and has never disputed the “one China” policy as recognized by most countries, including Washington.Rather, the Xinhua diatribe was the opening salvo in three days of intimidation exercises ending Monday in which Chinese ships and planes made a show of simulating the destruction of just about anything on Taiwan at which they happened to aim their weapons. Since all the material was in English, clearly the Chinese wanted the Americans to be fully aware of what they were up to.Xinhua and the rest of the mainland’s national media went into precise details of the operation beginning with the release of what it said was “a computer-generated animation” showing “conventional missiles and long-range rockets on land, warplanes in the air and warships at sea simultaneously launching attacks from multiple directions.”The exercises also appeared to demonstrate the ability of the Communist Chinese military forces to blockade the island democracy by land and sea, cutting Taiwan off from the outside world.“The Chinese People’s Liberation Army” — formal name for all China’s armed forces — “organized its multiple affiliated military services and branches and conducted joint precision strike simulations on the island of Taiwan,” said the English-language Global Times, published by the national party paper, People’s Daily.That was just on the first day. Next day came “combat alert patrols” and “Joint Sword exercises, continuing to pressure Taiwan independence forces and safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”Unlike Day One, “which honed seizing control of sea, air and information,” said the dispatch, “the second day trained launching strikes on land targets, showing the exercises featured multiple courses that are very realistic and combat oriented.”It was up to the Taiwan media to fill in some important details that were carefully omitted in the reporting from Beijing.About 10 Taiwanese warships were ready to greet ten Chinese warships as they approached Taiwan’s territorial waters. In addition, Taiwan’s defense ministry said some 70 Chinese planes had joined the exercise.The Chinese ships and plane did not quite intrude on Taiwan territory, but all the ships and 35 of the planes did cross the dividing line between Taiwan and the mainland in the middle of the Taiwan Straits.“Since 1955, there has been a tacit agreement between Taiwan and China not to cross the median line” said the Taiwan News. “However, on Sept. 21, 2020, Beijing denied the existence of the line and has since been breaching it with increasing frequency.”Xinhua embellished on the pretext for the exercise.Ms. Tsai, in her meeting “with U.S. government officials and congressmen, including Kevin McCarthy, the third highest-ranking U.S. official” had “trumpeted ‘Taiwan independence’ at every opportunity,” said the dispatch.“These actions prove that by no means it was a ‘private trip’ as claimed by the United States,” Xinhua added, but rather “a provocative act by the United States and Taiwan authorities in an attempt to upgrade official interaction and substantive relations.”Never mind that the topic of Taiwan independence was never mentioned. President Biden, the Chinese claimed, was “bent on arranging political activities for Tsai under the guise of a ‘transit’” on her way home from visits to Guatemala and Belize, two of the 13 states with which Taiwan still has diplomatic relations.

Show of Force by Beijing Follows Free Chinese President’s Parley With McCarthy

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