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On December 31st, two US warships sailed through the Taiwan Strait in the second mission of the type in December alone.
The US Navy said the guided-missile destroyers USS John S McCain and USS Curtis Wilbur had “conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit December 31 in accordance with international law”.
“The ships’ transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The United States military will continue to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows.”
It is the 13th sailing through the strait by the US Navy this year.
China’s Defense Ministry condemned the trip as “provocation” and “a show of force”, adding Chinese ships and aircraft trailed the US vessels.
The passage of the ships sent the wrong message to supporters of Taiwan independence and are a serious threat to peace and stability, it added.
“The Chinese People’s Liberation Army maintains a high level of alert at all times, responds to all threats and provocations at all times and resolutely defends national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the ministry said.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said the ships had sailed in a northerly direction through the strait on what it termed an “ordinary mission”. Taiwan’s armed forces monitored the sailing and the situation is “as normal”, it added.
China’s military said it had tailed the last US warship to pass through the Taiwan Strait on December 19th, it also condemned that mission.
On December 20th, Taiwan deployed its navy and air force as a Chinese aircraft carrier group led by the country’s newest carrier, the Shandong, sailed through the Taiwan Strait.
The year of 2020 has been one of provocation when it comes to Taiwan and the United States, with China constantly disproving various movements and decisions by Washington in relation to Taiwan.
Taiwan claimed it faces daily military threats from “authoritarian forces”, President Tsai Ing-wen said on December 8th, as the United States announced a new $280m arms sale package to the Chinese-claimed island, the sixth this year.
The outgoing Trump administration has ramped up support for the democratic island, with 11 arms sale packages in total and on December 7th notified Congress of its plans to sell a new Field Information Communications System (FICS) to Taiwan.
Such sales have angered China, adding to the existing tension between Beijing and Washington, with China placing sanctions on US companies involved and stepping up its military activities near Taiwan, including regular air force missions.
Speaking at a security forum in Taipei, Tsai noted the threats in the region, including the “increasingly militarised” South China Sea, where China has built artificial islands with air and naval facilities claiming almost the entire area under its so-called “nine-dash line”.
The Ministry of National Defense details almost daily “incursions” into Taiwan’s airspace by Chinese aircraft. In September, China reportedly threatened or entered into Taiwan’s airspace 46 times in the past nine days, it said.
“Fly overs are happening almost every day now. Sometimes it’s electronic intelligence planes escorted by fighters, sometimes they’re anti-submarine warfare planes,” Liao “Kitsch” Yen-Fan, a security analyst at the Institute of National Defense and Security Research in Taiwan.
It should be reminded that Taiwan is officially a part of China.
Taiwan’s government has moved to reassure its people that the new administration of President-elect Joe Biden, a Democrat, will not mean reduced US backing for the island.
Speaking at the same forum, Kurt Campbell, a former US official who has advised Biden, said there was strong bipartisan support for Taiwan.
“There is a broad group of people across the political aisle that understand the profound strategic significance and our strategic interests in maintaining a strong relationship with Taiwan,” said Campbell, the top US diplomat for East Asia under former President Barack Obama.
It is unknown if the provocations would continue under Biden, but the tensions appear to be as high as ever.
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It’s nice that these aging relics are still capable of taking low IQ Americans on tours of the Far East, it’s good for their moral. Soon they’ll all have to go home to their dying country, to unbelievable poverty and depravation, to a country that’s despised worldwide….let them have their few days in the sun.
Lenin’s head talks every new year’s eve
Can you deny any of this?, I can furnish facts and figures. I really feel sorry for the American populace. There’s not one American “politician” of principle or moral courage, they’re all Iscariot’s, bought and paid for by the Jewish “30 pieces of silver” and the MIC…the future for your country is not looking great.
Yes, I want to cry a bit. Tell me the worst of USA.
Bacon is Ukrainian.
That Harry, makes it even more pathetic, not only is he a pawn in America’s psychopathic games but they’ve obliterated his country and made it a cesspit ……similar to America.
I doubt it. His English is too Americanized .
His English sucks.
Have you been to the supermarket lately. I went today with my grandchildren. Fully stocked shelves. Great produce, meat and dairy. All fresh. Sections of the store were dedicated to Hispanic foods and East Asian foods. Those wishing to move to America are innumerable. Those wishing to leave can, without any problem, but there are no such people. This country is blessed with great wealth and abundance but even more, with individual liberties. Yes there is a great split politically, but that is how democracy works in a healthy republic. We are not without our problems, including political corruption, and drug addiction and obesity, but we beat DDT and the eagle is back; we quit smoking tobacco and respiratory health is greatly enhanced; we have improved clean air and water. We can learn from our mistakes and make corrections while still allowing individuality and upward mobility. I love my country. My people have been here 400 years. May God continue to bless America.
Nothing wrong with loving the land of your birth, but you appear to have a very insular and myopic view of America…..a view not shared by the vast majority of the world’s population, America is a land of “war addicted” psychopaths. It’s a land born out of genocide and slavery and it has carried that brutalising practice right through to the present day. It has been at war 93% of its short, but infamous history and has been responsible for the butchery of the greatest number of innocent souls in this planets history. It constantly uses whatever nefarious means it deems necessary to rape and plunder weaker countries ad nauseam, should that be nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, famine or whatever. I could continue but I’m sure you get the gist of the contempt in which your country is held. I have absolutely no quarrel with the general American populace and wish them well, but the greedy, unsavoury, amoral socioparhs masquerading as “politicians” will take America to a third-world dystopian hell….i’s’ already happening.
I have lived seven decades in this country. We are not bound by a class system. In my life I have witnessed enormous progress in the National fight for racial equality and equal opportunity. I have seen the Native American population reach previously unattained abundance. African Americans have also made huge strides towards improved socio-economic circumstances. No doubt there remains work to do, but the most important point is that the objective of spreading the prosperity is a national objective shared by the vast majority of the people and not imposed by law upon subjects, but nurtured by the aspirations of the citizenry.
America held back its hand when it had a nuclear monopoly. Mao, Stalin and Hitler are the kings of mass murdered and were all socialists.
Progress is sometimes slow but the direction of the vector is the critical issue. We remain pointed in the right direction. We are increasingly reflecting the demographic composition of the world as immigration pressure from the entire world feeds our county with new people yearning to be free and to live life abundantly.
I do pray that all mankind find its way forward and that in doing so we enhance individual sovereignty while protecting the common good.
their gay navy searching for inter-species sex w dolphins; fortunately they do not permit LSD afflicted janitors like bacon or jens pilot their rusty HIV spreading vessels
When all you have is debts, a crumbling empire, propaganda and a large serfs population, then you ahve to pretend you are powerful by using your military,which is what US will be doing more in 2021. They are not the largets economy anymore. US dollars usage is down to 50%.
Agreed, it is a sign of weakness, uncertainty and now probably fear.
” “The Chinese People’s Liberation Army maintains a high level of alert at all times, responds to all threats and provocations at all times and resolutely defends national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” ”
Whatever China, everyone knows that if Chinese ships pulled these stunts in US waters there would be alot of dead Chinese sailors as a result.