The Biden Admin needs to start showing some grit. Our adversaries are having a field day with Biden in office and we need Biden to start reining them in. China once again tested the defenses of Taiwan sending almost 40 warplanes into their defensive zone. Taiwan was quick to respond and scared them off. But it’s only a matter of time until China sends them in to attack the island nation, and then we have to get involved.
“Taiwan on Sunday reported the largest incursion since October by China’s air force in its air defense zone, with the island’s defense ministry saying Taiwanese fighters scrambled to warn away 39 aircraft in the latest uptick in tensions.
Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, has complained for more than a year of repeated missions by China’s air force near the democratically governed island, often in the southwestern part of its air defense identification zone, or ADIZ, close to the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands.
Taiwan calls China’s repeated nearby military activities “grey zone” warfare, designed to both wear out Taiwan’s forces by making them repeatedly scramble, and also to test Taiwan’s responses.
The latest Chinese mission included 34 fighters plus four electronic warfare aircraft and a single bomber, the Taiwan ministry said.”
“Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the US Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center, said China is trying to keep Taiwan off balance and tired — “like a tennis player pushes his opponent to chase the ball across the court” — sending larger formations of aircraft toward the island from more distant bases on the mainland.”
“Tensions have been high since Taiwanese citizens elected Tsai Ing-wen as president in 2016, to which Beijing responded by cutting off previously established communications with the island’s government. Tsai’s predecessor was friendly to China and had endorsed Beijing’s claim that the two are part of a single Chinese nation.”
The incursions on Sunday marked the highest daily number of Chinese warplanes entering Taiwan’s ADIZ this year. The highest number of incursions ever recorded was on October 4 last year, when 56 military planes flew into the area on the same day.”
This is going to be a problem for us especially if we end up in a conflict with Russia over Ukraine. China could use that as an opportunity to go after Taiwan. And really that feels likely since Biden made us look like we can’t even pull off an evacuation successfully from a country we were in full control of for 20 years.