Meanwhile, in Taiwan…

With all eyes on Israel, I previously noted that right now presents a compelling opportunity for China to attack Taiwan - or at least send a message.

News on Taiwan isn’t always that common, so, I went to an English-language Taiwanese newspaper.

www.taiwannews.com.tw...

On the front page, there was an article noting that 5 PLA surface ships and 14 aircraft buzzed Taiwan in a 24 hour period:

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) tracked 14 Chinese military aircraft and five naval vessels around the country between 6 a.m. Tuesday (Oct. 10) and 6 a.m. Wednesday (Oct. 11).

The defense ministry said that 14 People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) military aircraft and five People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) vessels were detected. Of the detected aircraft, six entered the north and southwest sectors of Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).

www.taiwannews.com.tw...

Interestingly, Taiwan is also holding this:

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The seventh annual Yushan Forum, organized by the Taiwan Asia Exchange Foundation, is set to kick off on Wednesday (Oct. 11) at the Taipei Grand Hyatt Hotel.

This year’s forum is themed "Start a New Blueprint for Asia Development” and includes academics, experts, and opinion leaders from like-minded nations and partner countries of Taiwan's New Southbound Policy (NSP), per a foreign ministry statement. They will discuss the links and cooperative development of the NSP and other countries' Indo-Pacific policies.

www.taiwannews.com.tw...

What is Taiwan’s NSP, you ask? Good question:

The New Southbound Policy (Chinese: 新南向政策; pinyin: Xīn Nán Xiàng Zhèngcè) is an initiative of the Government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) under President Tsai Ing-wen that aims to enhance cooperation and exchange between Taiwan and 18 countries in Southeast Asia, South Asia and Australasia.[1][2][3]

en.m.wikipedia.org...

Notably, China does not appear to be part of said policy.

I suspect that wouldn’t make China happy.

With the Israeli and Ukrainian conflicts ongoing, the US attempting to supply the world, and many NATO countries spread militarily thin thanks to Ukraine… is this China’s opportunity to shoot while we reload - and send a message that “One China” does in fact mean “One China”?

Dangerous times, which I hope do not come to pass.

a reply to: VulcanWerks

To be fair, if we posted everytime Taiwan announced Chinese vehicles, be it air or sea, in its vicinity, we would be posting almost daily.

Yet, that doesn't rule out your concerns.

originally posted by: JinMI
a reply to: VulcanWerks

To be fair, if we posted everytime Taiwan announced Chinese vehicles, be it air or sea, in its vicinity, we would be posting almost daily.

Yet, that doesn't rule out your concerns.

Completely fair. I should have noted that in the OP.

China incursions are not uncommon and not alone a notable escalation.

Or if Taiwan is too much, there’s always the South China Sea issues that might be lower hanging fruit:

The 1.3-million-square-mile waterway is vital to international trade, with an estimated third of global shipping worth trillions of dollars passing through each year.

It’s also home to vast fertile fishing grounds upon which many lives and livelihoods depend.

Much of its economic value remains untapped, however. According to the US Energy Information Agency, the waterway holds at least 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 11 billion barrels of oil.

www.cnn.com...

🍿

a reply to: VulcanWerks


You must be tripping to think China will escalate.

China knows better than a barbaric terrorist.

But unless they cross those lines only God knows hell break loose on them.

For short, you don't know what you're wishing my boi. You need to learn to thread softly. Even the devil himself *pause for sometime*

That thinking makes sense to me strategically.
Why risk war when you could just buy the Boardwalk?

a reply to: VulcanWerks

China is just saber rattling right now. Taiwan has something that China wants. That being said, China can not just launch an attack, as it could damage the very assets it wants to capture. And as long as Taiwan has support, and China has not isolated it, then it is back to saber rattling and intelligence gathering.

That is what China is doing right now, gathering intelligence, to determine the capacity of Taiwan, how much of a military response/threat would be present in the event that the cold conflict heats up.

china isnt gonna do anything

Chinese military strategy number one get close to Japan territory for Japanese air self defense can wear down their force and their oil reserves number two United States Air Force from kadena and possibly yokota on Tokyo Air Force intercepts Chinese recursion stored Japanese waters on basically every other two days wearing down the military of the United States and also depleting them of the oil to run their airplanes this is China's strategy and I hope that people understand this and the military.

originally posted by: JinMI
a reply to: VulcanWerks

To be fair, if we posted everytime Taiwan announced Chinese vehicles, be it air or sea, in its vicinity, we would be posting almost daily.

Yet, that doesn't rule out your concerns.

I know right. They just had like twenty something aircraft in the sky and twenty something ships around Taiwan. A week or two ago.

Are you all intentionally ignoring the FACT that Taiwan IS Chinese territory, it, part of China. Just because it wants to separate itself does not make any difference.

originally posted by: crayzeed
Are you all intentionally ignoring the FACT that Taiwan IS Chinese territory, it, part of China. Just because it wants to separate itself does not make any difference.

Sure seems like it has made a difference, no?

China doesn’t come out of any war with an upper hand. They will pay for every step they take and it may be too costly. Pyrrhic victory.