Tag: Military drills

Watch out for an ‘unprecedented’ response: North Korea warns ahead of South-US drills

Pyongyang has threatened an “unprecedentedly strong” response to the upcoming joint military exercises between the US and South Korea. The allied efforts to more effectively combat North Korea’s threats include the exercises scheduled for next week.

As South Korea and the US get ready for their annual joint military exercises, North Korea on Friday threatened a “unprecedentedly persistent, strong” response.

Shortly after South Korea announced joint tabletop exercises for the following week, a statement was made.

“In case the US and South Korea carry into practice their already announced plan for military drills that [North Korea], with just apprehension and reason, regards as preparations for an aggression war, they will face unprecedentedly persistent and strong counteractions,” the North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by state media.

Pyongyang called South Korea and the US “the arch-criminals deliberately disrupting” regional peace and stability.

“This predicts that the situation in the Korean Peninsula and the region will be again plunged into the grave vortex of escalating tension,” the statement said.

Planned simulated drill on North Korea’s use of nukes

The South Korea-US joint drills, called the Deterrence Strategy Committee Tabletop Exercise, are set to begin on February 22 at the Pentagon in Washington.

The drills are part of efforts to thwart North Korea’s increasing nuclear and missile threats.

The exercises would involve defense policymakers from both sides, Seoul’s Defense Ministry said.

Military drills with the United States had been scaled back during the coronavirus pandemic. But they are now being bolstered under South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, as he looks to reassure an increasingly nervous South Korean public of Washington’s commitment to deter Pyongyang.

North Korea condemns UN Security Council

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry also cautioned that if the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) continues to be “inveigled” by Washington, it will reconsider additional actions beyond normal military activities, without elaborating further.

The ministry has accused the US of fueling tensions and using UNSC as “a tool for illegal hostile policy” to pressure North Korea.

In 2022, North Korea conducted a record number of military tests, firing about 70 ballistic missiles.

The tests included nuclear-capable weapons with the ability to strike targets in South Korea or reach the US mainland.

February 17, 2023
US drills propelling situation to ‘extreme red-line’

Pyongyang has threatened the “toughest reaction” in response to the United States’ escalation of joint military exercises with South Korea.

The Korean Peninsula’s situation has reached an “extreme red line” as a result of South Korea and the United States’ joint military exercises, according to North Korea, which has denounced them and warned that they could turn the area into a “huge war arsenal and a more critical war zone.”

In addition to threatening the “toughest” response, North Korea said in a statement released on Thursday that it was not interested in dialogue as long as Washington continued its so-called “hostile” policies.

Days after US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited Seoul and promised to increase Washington’s deployment of cutting-edge military assets, such as fighter jets, to the Korean Peninsula, Pyongyang issued the warning.

The North Korean statement, attributed to an unidentified spokesperson of its Foreign Ministry, said the expansion of the allies’ drills is threatening to turn the Korean Peninsula into a “huge war arsenal and a more critical war zone”. The statement said Pyongyang is prepared to counter any short-term or long-term military challenge by the allies with the “most overwhelming nuclear force”.

“The military and political situation on the Korean Peninsula and in the region has reached an extreme red line due to the reckless military confrontational manoeuvres and hostile acts of the US and its vassal forces,” the spokesperson said.

The “DPRK will take the toughest reaction to any military attempt of the US on the principle of ‘nuke for nuke and an all-out confrontation for an all-out confrontation!’” the spokesperson said, referring to the country by its formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“If the US continues to introduce strategic assets into the Korean Peninsula and its surrounding area, the DPRK will make clearer its deterring activities without fail according to their nature,” the spokesperson added.

North Korea for decades has described the US’s combined military exercises with South Korea as rehearsals for a potential invasion, although the allies have described those drills as defensive. North Korea last year ramped up its own weapons demonstrations as the allies resumed their large-scale training that had been downsized for years.

North Korea’s actions included a slew of missile and artillery launches that it described as simulated nuclear attacks on South Korean and US targets.

Jeon Ha Gyu, a spokesperson for South Korea’s defence ministry, said the ministry had no immediate comment in response to the North Korean statement.

He said the allies’ latest aerial drills – which took place on Wednesday and involved the US’s B-1B bombers and F-22 and F-35 fighter jets – were aimed at demonstrating the credibility of the US “extended deterrence”, referring to a commitment to use the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear ones, to defend South Korea.

He declined to reveal the exact number of South Korean and US aircraft involved in the exercise.

South Korea in recent months has sought stronger assurances that the US will swiftly and decisively use its nuclear capabilities to protect its ally in the face of a North Korean nuclear attack. More than 28,500 US troops are based in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-1953 Korean War, which ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

During a political conference in December, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for an “exponential increase” in nuclear warheads, mass production of battlefield tactical nuclear weapons targeting South Korea, and the development of more powerful long-range missiles designed to reach the US mainland.

Experts say Kim’s nuclear push is aimed at forcing the US to accept the idea of North Korea as a nuclear power and then negotiating badly needed economic concessions from a position of strength.

Nuclear negotiations between North Korea and the US have been derailed since 2019 because of disagreements over a relaxation of Washington-led economic sanctions against North Korea in exchange for steps by Pyongyang to wind down its nuclear weapons and missile programmes.

The North Korean spokesperson said Pyongyang was not interested in any contact or dialogue with the US as long as it maintains its “hostile policy and confrontational line”, accusing Washington of maintaining sanctions and military pressure to force North Korea to “disarm itself unilaterally”.

February 2, 2023
Russian warship to partake in military drills with China, South Africa navies

A Russian frigate outfitted with hypersonic Zircon missiles will take part in joint exercises in South Africa in February, TASS reports.

Russia’s state-owned TASS news agency said, a warship outfitted with hypersonic cruise missiles will participate in joint exercises with the navies of China and South Africa in February.

The participation of the Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov of the Fleet of the Soviet Union was first mentioned in an official report on Monday.

The frigate is equipped with Zircon missiles, which have a range of more than 1,000 km and can travel at nine times the speed of sound (620 miles).

The missiles and the Avangard glide vehicle, which entered combat service in 2019, are the centerpiece of Russia’s hypersonic arsenal.

“‘Admiral Gorshkov’ … will go to the logistic support point in Syria’s Tartus, and then take part in joint naval exercises with the Chinese and South African navies,” TASS said in its report, citing an unidentified defence source.

The South African National Defence Force has said the drills will run from February 17-26 near the port cities of Durban and Richards Bay on South Africa’s east coast.

It said on Thursday that the joint exercise aims “to strengthen the already flourishing relations between South Africa, Russia and China”.

The exercise will be the second involving the three countries in South Africa, after a drill in 2019, the defence force added.

The Gorshkov held exercises in the Norwegian Sea earlier this month after President Vladimir Putin sent it to the Atlantic Ocean in a signal to the West that Russia would not back down over the war in Ukraine.

Putin has previously said the frigate and its Zircon missiles have “no analogues in the world”.

The Russian president sees the weapons as a way to pierce the United States’s increasingly sophisticated missile defences.

Russia, the US and China are in a race to develop hypersonic weapons, seen as a way to gain an edge over any adversary because of their speed and their manoeuvrability, features which make them harder to detect.

January 23, 2023
Taiwan: In the line of fire

The invasion of Ukraine has been an aggressive play by an expansionist neighbour and led to global condemnation of the Russians. But it has also got some asking – could Taiwan be next?

Could we see another victim of an ambitious power trying to increase its global clout?

The self-governing island, formed by nationalists who managed to escape the grip of Communist China, has long been the target of Beijing. The Chinese government has always viewed it as a breakaway province it must ultimately re-unify.

Until now, the manpower, money, and influence that it would require has kept China at bay. But some fear President Xi, eyeing an unprecedented third term, now has the ability and the ambition to do something drastic in a bid to carve out his legacy.

After speaking to a wide cast of characters in Taiwan, that still seems an unlikely scenario in the immediate future – even amongst the most anxious and invested parties we heard from.

It would be hugely risky – an enormous logistical undertaking that could easily destabilise China’s relationship with others in the region.

And if China was watching as closely as some suspect, surely Ukraine is a deeply cautionary tale. Nevertheless, Russia’s exploits have highlighted how fragile peace is when you’re dealing with an unpredictable power.

America has also played a big part in the escalating tension. Nancy Pelosi’s visit in August was diplomatically explosive.

China was so infuriated by the US House Speaker touching down in what it views as Chinese territory, that Beijing embarked on its biggest-ever military drills around Taiwan.

Many on the island now claim that almost daily incursions into its skies and waters are the new normal.

In Central Taiwan, we witnessed a military drill – up to 400 soldiers working in searing heat, firing Howitzers. Taiwan insists these exercises are not a reaction to any recent moves by China, but it is also a little more real.

President Tsai, who we followed on the campaign trail, certainly isn’t capitulating – far from it.

At rehearsals for National Day, where Taiwan flexed its military muscle, the theme was a strong nod to national security. “Protect soil, guard country,” the banners read.

We met civilians preparing for the worst, building survival kits at home. There’s been a huge spike in people attending self-defence and first aid courses recently. We heard from others trying to improve shelters.

Then there are the cyber warriors taking on fake news. Drones are the latest threat. Taiwan thinks they represent psychological warfare, a “grey zone” tactic it must confront.

But unpicking propaganda, verifying footage and working out where drones came from, who’s flying them and where they’re landing, is very difficult.

And it’s easy to misread the dynamics.

Kinmen Island, where China is easily visible, has been described as akin to Korea’s DMZ. But it doesn’t feel like a place with a bunker mentality. In fact we also met lots of people who really enjoy living so close to the mainland. Until the pandemic, they’d love to take a 30-minute ferry over to shop there.

Chinese tourists in turn would come to Kinmen to watch historic re-enactments of darker days, when Kinmen was under bombardment by the Chinese.

Now, it’s more a conflict curiosity shop than an anxious outpost. Many share a language and cultural affinity with mainlanders.

On a cliff edge on one of Kinmen’s islands sits a 3 storey high wall of speakers. It looks out over a narrow strip of water to China, just two kilometres away at its narrowest point.

Housed in concrete, the tower used to blast songs and propaganda messages across the sea. Today, it still plays a song by Tawainese pop idol, Teresa Teng, but the volume is much lower these days.

It’s become a tourist attraction on the island, a place for snapping selfies and remembering a darker time when the island was under attack from China.

Kinmen is Taiwan’s literal frontline.

Roy Chen has come with his wife, Vicky, and a group of friends to celebrate his 40th birthday. He was in the army for 18 months and is prepared to fight again for his country, if China invaded Taiwan.

“We don’t really care about the history between China and Taiwan. It happened a very long time ago”, he says. “Taiwan is Taiwan, China is China. It’s different countries.”

“If China really wants to get Taiwan, it’s easy. But he cannot get our people, our hearts, our spirit”.

Roy’s friend, Nina Wu, agrees. “We fight for our freedom and we love our people and the country.” she says. “We don’t want to become a part of China.”

In a humid warehouse south of Taipei, four men in military fatigues and body armour are poised to attack.

Peering through the sights of their airsoft rifles, they exchange hand signals and quick glances before kicking a door open and firing.

These men aren’t soldiers. They’re just practising military skills with replica guns. Skills that Ping-yu Lin, 38, hopes he will never need.

He thinks everybody needs to be prepared for an attack from China “in their own way”, and that an attack could happen in “three to five years”.

“After the Ukraine war, we start to think it’s rising, the threat is rising. And some of us are starting to prepare ourselves. Compared with China we are small. And we need more friends, more allies.”

Ping-yu is a father of three and worries about Taiwan’s future. He believes there’s a lot at stake if China were to invade.

“Taiwan will lose everything in our democracy and our society, our property, our lives… in the current climate we can’t take peace for granted.”

In the glaring heat of an autumn day, it’s a welcome relief to step inside the gloom of the Zhaishan tunnels.

We walk along the edge of the subterranean channels, looking down into the clear green waters.

The cold war era caves were built by hand to shelter ships from Chinese view.

For 56-year-old Hsi-Tein Lee, they were home for more than a year.

He joined Taiwan’s army when he was 18, in the 1980’s.

“The tension between Taiwan and China was at a high level.” he tells us. “As a kid under 20, I was very nervous and scared. I was worried that the war would break out at any time, and I had to sacrifice my life to the country. I was terrified.”

Hsi-Tein doesn’t miss those days, and has no desire to return to them.

“Everybody thinks that Taiwan and China should keep the peace” he says. “It’s good that people enjoy freedom. It’s not wise to promote Taiwanese independence or to provoke China’s armed forces.”

The start of the war in Ukraine had a massive impact on many Taiwanese. The reality of a neighbour invading has prompted many to consider a future conflict on their shores.

Enoch Wu wants to prepare civilians for any disaster, whether that’s an earthquake – or war. Frontline Alliance runs emergency response training and since the start of the war in Ukraine, their classes are packed.

“One of the biggest lessons from Ukraine is that our world can be turned upside down just like that” he tells us.

“You know, people don’t appreciate how incredibly fragile peace is, and especially when you live next to a volatile ruler, a dictatorship who can act on a whim to attack and invade another country, an autocratic government that is not accountable to its people or to the international community.”

The 41-year-old believes that Taiwan has been living under an “existential threat” from China for decades. He says his parents fought for democracy in Taiwan, and now their children have to protect it.

“We are unfortunately facing our biggest generational challenge of national survival”, he says. “It’s up to us now to maintain and protect this way of life.”

Enoch Wu is concerned about the Chinese military build up and is calling for a NATO-style collective security agreement.

“China took over the South China Sea, rock by rock, and now it’s militarised.. They’ve never hid their intentions. And I think we need to not be naive.”

In Taipei, you get the sense it is now forged its own identity and the horse feels like it’s well and truly bolted. In the past, some saw the economic appeal of China.

Now you get a sense of a gaping gulf between the two societies. Gay marriage is legal in Taiwan and many young people we spoke to, including those about to embark on military service, believe there’s no going back. They’re proud of Taiwan – they see it as a progressive nation with an increasingly distinct character.

They weren’t preoccupied with worries about war. But it’s everything in between that concerns others – the multitude of ways China could and likely will try to exert its influence.

And there is plenty it could do to derail the path Taiwan has set for itself – without a full-scale invasion.

DISCLAIMER: Independentghana.com will not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article. The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author’s and do not reflect those of The Independent Ghana

Source: SkyNews, Cordelia Lynch and Rachel Thompson

October 10, 2022
In two weeks: North Korea carries out sixth missile launch
On Thursday, North Korea launched two more ballistic missiles, making it the sixth such banned launch in less than two weeks.

On Wednesday, Pyongyang defined its recent offensive as “just counteraction measures” in response to joint military exercises between the US and South Korea.

On Tuesday Pyongyang fired a missile over Japan, prompting the US to call an emergency UN Security Council meeting.

At the meeting, the US accused Russia and China of protecting the North from stronger sanctions.

By opposing further sanctions Moscow and Beijing had given Pyongyang “blanket protection”, the US ambassador to the UN said. The Chinese and Russian representatives said increased dialogue was better than punishment.

For the past two months the US, South Korea, and Japan have been holding a series of combined exercises as they practice how to defeat and deter a North Korean attack. These drills have antagonised North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who sees them as proof his enemies are preparing for war.

In its statement, the North accused the US of “escalating the military tensions on the Korean peninsula”.

On Wednesday the US, Japan, and South Korea carried out further drills, which they said were a response to Tuesday’s launch. The US said there was “no equivalency” between a banned missile test-fire and security drills.
The US also redeployed its aircraft carrier the USS Ronald Reagan near the Korean peninsula

As the Security Council wrapped up a meeting on North Korea’s dangerous ballistic missile launches, we learned that Pyongyang launched two more missiles.

Make no mistake: the two Council members that are blocking us from taking action are enabling North Korea.

— Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (@USAmbUN) October 6, 2022

South Korea and Japan said the first of Thursday’s missiles, launched at about 06:00 local time (21:00 GMT) flew about 350km (217 miles) with a maximum altitude of around 100km, while the second missile had a flight range of about 800km at an altitude of around 50km.

The recent flurry of launches is strongly reminiscent of the period leading up to its last nuclear weapon test in 2017.

Back then, as is happening now, the North tested missiles, there was no dialogue with the US, and Pyongyang fired two missiles over Japan.

Satellite imagery shows that the North has been restoring tunnels at their nuclear testing site, which they had claimed to have destroyed in 2018 during a short-lived diplomatic rapprochement with the US under President Trump.

Last month, North Korea also revised its nuclear laws, with leader Kim Jong Un declaring his country an “irreversible” nuclear power.

With everything in place, Kim appears to be waiting for a politically opportune moment to carry out its seventh nuclear test.

Analysts believe a test is most likely to happen during the window of three weeks between the Communist Party Congress in China later this month and the US mid-term elections in early November.

North Korea’s recent launches

Sunday 25 September: A short-range missile fired the day after a US naval carrier arrived in waters around the Korean peninsula. 600km distance/60km altitude

Wednesday 28 September: Two short-range missiles fired on the eve of US Vice President Kamala Harris’ visit to Seoul and the DMZ. 360km distance/30km altitude

Thursday 29 September: Two short-range missiles after Harris departed South Korea. 300km distance/50km altitude

Saturday 1 October:Two short-range missiles fired amid continuing US-South Korea-Japan drills. 400km distance/50km altitude

Tuesday 4 October: An intermediate-range ballistic missile fired over Japan. 4,500km distance/2,800km altitude

Thursday 6 October: Two more short-range missiles fired. 800km distance/50km altitude
October 6, 2022
The nuclear threat from North Korea hangs over Kamala Harris’s trip to Asia

Washington issues a warning ahead of the US Vice President’s trip to South Korea, saying that North Korea might conduct a nuclear test while she is there. Ballistic missile tests by Pyongyang continue to ratchet up the critical situation.

As US Vice President Kamala Harris visits Seoul this week, the US, South Korea, and Japan are closely monitoring North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site.

North Korea has carried out over 30 missile tests in 2022 and US officials are warning that Pyongyang could use Harris’s visit as an opportunity to carry out a seventh nuclear test, and the first since 2017.

“We have made clear that such a test would result in additional actions by the US to demonstrate our ironclad commitment to the security of the Republic of Korea and to our Japanese allies,” an unnamed White House official told reporters during a background conference call last week.

“We have made clear how concerned we have been by North Korean provocations and destabilizing behavior, and a nuclear test would certainly be in that category,” the official added.

North Korea on Sunday test-fired a short-range ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan, one day before the US and South Korean troops began combined naval exercises.

Satellite images of North Korea’s Sinpo naval dockyards, on the east coast, suggest that a new submarine, capable of firing ballistic missiles, is about to be launched.

Kamala Harris met with Japanese PM Fumio Kishida in Tokyo on Monday

Major US-South Korea military drills

On Monday, the US and South Korea kicked off four days of joint military maneuvers with at least 20 warships and dozens of aircraft.

The 101,000-ton aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan is leading a US battle group made up of guided-missile destroyers and the USS Annapolis, a Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine. It is the first joint US-South Korea exercise with an aircraft carrier since 2017.

In a statement, the South Korean military said the drills are aimed at showing “powerful resolve to respond to North Korean provocations” and improving capabilities to perform joint naval operations.

On Monday, Kim Song, the head of the North Korean mission to the United Nations, said that US-led exercises are “an extremely dangerous act” that could push the region “to the brink of war.”

“The security environment of the Korean Peninsula is now caught in a vicious cycle of tensions and confrontation due to the growing hostility of the United States and its following forces against the DPRK [North Korea],” he added.

Will North Korea test nukes?

During a visit to South Korea by US President Joe Biden in May, intelligence officials warned that North Korea was “preparing” for a nuclear test during the visit.

Biden’s visit was not greeted with any North Korean weapons testing, nuclear or otherwise. However, hours after the US president ended his Asia trip, Pyongyang test-fired three ballistic missiles.

This time around, analysts suggest North Korean leader Kim Jong Un could consider putting off a nuclear test in order to not overshadow Chinese President Xi Jinping and the upcoming Chinese Communist Party conference. But that is not a given.

“There are limits to Pyongyang’s self-restraint,” said Leif-Eric Easley, an associate professor of international studies at Ewha Woman’s University in Seoul.

“The Kim regime sees itself in an arms race with South Korea and may be looking to make up for a lost time after its pandemic struggles,” he underlined.

“Significant North Korean missile tests can contribute to national pride and send international signals. Pyongyang could be making a show of strength while a US aircraft carrier is visiting South Korea for defense exercises,” the expert said.

“North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs are in violation of international law, but Kim tries to depict his destabilizing arms buildup as a righteous effort at self-defense,” and tests are part of a “long-term campaign for advancing offensive military capabilities,” he added.

The bigger picture for Asian security

Yakov Zinberg, a professor of international relations specializing in East Asian affairs at Tokyo’s Kokushikan University, told DW that the latest saber-rattling on the Korean Peninsula “is all part of a sequence of actions and reactions among interlocking alliances that inevitably encompass the Taiwan situation and Ukraine.”

“Harris’s visit is a message that the US remains committed to its allies and partners in the region and is a warning to North Korea not to get any closer to Russia,” he added. North Korea has denied US reports that it has been providing weapons to the Russian military as sanctions squeeze Moscow’s supply.

Kim Jong Un threatens to use nuclear weapons if attacked

On Harris’s itinerary will be a visit to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) dividing North and South Korea, which symbolizes tensions on the Peninsula since the Korean War ended in 1953 without a peace treaty formally ending hostilities.

Park Jung-won, a professor of international law at South Korea’s Dankook University, told DW the vice president’s visit to the DMZ is “highly symbolic.”

“Pyongyang’s provocations are an effort to take advantage of the global turmoil at the moment and Harris’s visit is largely designed to underline the strength of the alliance with South Korea,” he said.

Park added that tensions between China and Taiwan also feed into larger strategic calculations in Northeast Asia.

In an interview earlier this week, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said that in the event of a conflict breaking out around Taiwan, North Korea is expected to launch an attack against South Korea.

“I agree with that assessment,” said Park, adding that China and North Korea recognize the strategic advantage of simultaneous conflicts on the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan and the challenges that would pose to the defending states.

“The US and South Korea must engage in discussions and draw up a detailed action plan for this sort of scenario,” Park said.

September 28, 2022
NATO launches air force training in the Baltic region

In an effort to fortify its eastern defenses against Russia’s offensive in Ukraine, a group of NATO member states have started two days of training exercises in the Baltic Sea region.

Air forces from Hungary, Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy, Turkey, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and the United Kingdom are taking part in the exercises. NATO candidate Finland is also involved in the drills.

“The exercise series integrates more than two dozen fighter and support aircraft and NATO airborne early warning aircraft with NATO and national command and control centres,” NATO said in a statement.

“The realistic drills train Allied forces to deter and – if needed – defend against any aggression,” it added.

September 26, 2022
We must contest Chinese missiles over Taiwan- US commander

A senior US military officer has stated that China’s decisionÂ to launch missiles over Taiwan must be disputed.

Vice Admiral Karl Thomas, commander of the Seventh Fleet, described China’s actions as “a gorilla in the room” if they weren’t stopped.

This month, Beijing conducted military exercises around the autonomous island, though it did not confirm whether any missiles actually flew over it.

After US lawmaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August, tensions skyrocketed.

Beijing, which asserts sovereignty over the island, was incensed by her high-profile visit.

Tuesday’s comments by Vice Admiral Thomas are significant, Based in Yokosuka, Japan, the Seventh Fleet is the largest forward-Âdeployed fleet in the US Navy, with some 50 to 70 vessels and submarines – and is a key part of its military presence in the region.

“It’s very important that we contest this type of thing. I know that the gorilla in the room is launching missiles over Taiwan,” Vice Admiral Thomas told reporters in Singapore. “It’s irresponsible to launch missiles over Taiwan into international waters.

“If you don’t challenge it… all of a sudden it can become just like the islands in the South China Sea [that] have now become military outposts. They now are full functioning military outposts that have missiles on them, large runways, hangers, radars, listening posts.”

China’s decision to conduct nearly a week of military drills in the waters around Taiwan disrupted major shipping and aerial routes – a move the island said effectively amounted to a blockade. It also accused Beijing of using the drills as practice for an invasion.

Taiwan said the missiles China fired flew high into the atmosphere and posed no threat. Its defense ministry did not disclose the trajectory of the missiles, citing intelligence concerns.

The Japanese embassy in Washington said it believed four missiles fired by China had passed over Taiwan’s capital Taipei.

The US and other allies have stepped up naval crossings in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, another area of strategic importance to Beijing, to emphasize that these are international waters.

While the US has official diplomatic relations with China and not Taiwan, it maintains a special relationship with the island, which includes selling weapons for defense – an arrangement that has long troubled China.

In recent years it has also become yet another flashpoint between Washington and Beijing as tensions between the two soured.

August 16, 2022
Taiwan braces as China drills follow Pelosi visit

China is kicking off its biggest-ever military exercises in the seas around Taiwan following US politician Nancy Pelosi’s visit.

The live fire drills began at 12:00 local time (04:00 GMT) and in several areas were due to take place within 12 miles of the island.

Taiwan said China was trying to change the status quo in the region.

Ms. Pelosi made a brief but controversial visit to Taiwan, which China regards as a breakaway province.

The drills are Beijing’s main response, although it has also blocked some trade with the island.

The exercises are due to take place in busy waterways and will include long-range live ammunition shooting, Beijing says.

Taiwan says it amounts to a sea and air blockade while the US said the drills were irresponsible and could spiral out of control.

Analyst Bonnie Lin told the BBC that the Taiwanese military would react cautiously but there was still a risk of confrontation.

“For example, if China decides to fly planes over Taiwan’s airspace, there is a chance that Taiwan might try to intercept them. And we could see a mid-air collision, we could see a lot of different scenarios playing out,” she said.

Taiwan said it scrambled jets to warn off Chinese warplanes on Wednesday and its military fired flares to drive away unidentified aircraft over the Kinmen islands, located close to the mainland.

Several ministries have suffered cyber-attacks in recent days, the Taiwanese government said.

Taiwan has also asked ships to take different routes and is negotiating with Japan and the Philippines to find alternative aviation routes.

Japan has also expressed concern to China over the areas covered by the military drills, which it says overlaps with its exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

In response, Chinese government spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Beijing did not accept the “so-called” Japan EEZ.

On Wednesday, China detained a suspected Taiwanese separatist in the coastal Zhejiang province on suspicion of endangering national security, according to local media reports.

Meanwhile, China’s Ambassador to France Lu Shaye told French TV that after “reunification” with Taiwan, Beijing would focus on “re-education”.

China has previously used the term “re-education” to refer to its detention of mostly-Muslim minorities in its north-western Xinjiang region, where human rights groups say more than a million people have been incarcerated.

These drills are unprecedented

In the Taiwanese capital, the situation remains calm but Taiwan is being forced to reroute a huge amount of air and sea traffic around the exclusion zones declared by Beijing.

Meanwhile a US aircraft that can track ballistic missiles in flight has taken off from Japan and is heading towards Taiwan.

Analysts say one scenario is that China is preparing to fire ballistic missiles – to splash down in the exclusion zones, very close to Taiwan’s coast. That is what China did back in 1996, the last time tensions between Beijing and Taipei got this bad. But this time the exclusion zones are much closer to Taiwan.

There is also concern that one of the exclusion zones is to the east of Taiwan in the Pacific ocean. Analysts say it is possible China is preparing to fly a missile over the top of Taiwan – to splash down in that zone. That would be considered a major violation of Taiwan’s airspace.

Mrs Pelosi, the most senior US politician to visit Taiwan in 25 years, made the trip as part of a wider Asian tour.

China had warned her not to travel to the island.

Accusing the US of “violating China’s sovereignty under the guise of so-called democracy”, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said: “Those who play with fire will not come to a good end and those who offend China will be punished.”

In a statement after the visit, Ms. Pelosi said China cannot “prevent world leaders or anyone from traveling to Taiwan to pay respect to its flourishing democracy, to highlight its many successes and to reaffirm our commitment to continued collaboration”.

After leaving Taiwan, Ms. Pelosi traveled to South Korea, where she met her counterpart Kim Jin-pyo. She is due to visit the Joint Security Area near the border between the two Koreas, patrolled by the US-led UN command and North Korea.

The US walks a diplomatic tightrope with its Taiwan policy. On the one hand, it abides by the “One China” policy, which recognizes only one Chinese government, giving it formal ties with Beijing and not Taiwan.

On the other, it maintains a “robust unofficial” relationship with the island, which includes selling weapons for Taiwan to defend itself.

Source: bbc.com

August 5, 2022