A week after US President Joe Biden vowed to militarily defend Taiwan against a Chinese invasion, Beijing has made its biggest military foray into the air defenses of the autonomous island it considers its territory.
The communist dictatorship sent 30 planes, 22 fighter planes and the rest made up of anti-submarine defense, early warning and electronic warfare devices. It was the largest contingent to test the Taiwanese protection system since January 23, when 39 aircraft took to the service.
Technically, it was more of the same. The planes flew in formation and invaded the so-called Adiz (Air Defense Identification Zone) of Taipei, crossing the line that divides the Taiwan Strait.
The Taiwanese sent fighter jets to intercept the adversaries and fired their anti-aircraft missile batteries. They diverted and left, having in the process forced a cost of mobilization that in 2021 was estimated at US$ 1 billion annually, in addition to testing the speed of reaction of the island. The biggest incursion even took place with 52 planes last October.
But the main intended effect is political. In his Asian tour of South Korea and Japan, Biden made several confrontational gestures towards China, the world’s second economy behind the US and its main strategic rival. On Monday (23), he said that Washington remained committed to the military defense of Taipei.
There were reactions from the Chinese, who said that Biden played with fire and that he did not follow his own speech. When he admonished Xi Jinping not to support his ally Vladimir Putin in the Ukraine War, the American reiterated to the Chinese leader that the US was steadfast in respecting Beijing’s “one China” policy – which, moreover, was accepted on paper by virtually the entire world. the world, except for 14 states.
However, in practice, American policy is accompanied by a commitment to arming and defending Taiwan, one of the main deterrents against a Chinese invasion to seize the island to which those defeated by the Communist Revolution of 1949 fled.
More than complaining, the Chinese made a challenge by promoting a joint patrol with the Russians near Japan and South Korea, using nuclear-powered bombers, in a little discreet message about their dissatisfaction and renewed support for Moscow. Xi has said he wants an end to the war, but he has never condemned Putin and lashes out at the Western sanctions regime applied to Russia.
That took place on Tuesday (24), when Biden was meeting with the group he reformed to face the Chinese, the Quad, which includes Japan, Australia and India. The next day, Beijing announced a surprise air-naval deployment exercise near the Taiwan Strait, citing the need to give a “solemn alert” to “US-island collusion” and has now made the incursion.
In the case of the latter, the area of ​​Chinese action was further south, close to the Pratas Islands, controlled by Taiwan and seen by many as a possible target for an invasion rehearsal of Taiwanese territory – which, in addition to having American support, is very well defended militarily and by nature, which does not give more than 10% of coastline with beaches favorable to amphibious landings and has covered the island with mountains.
Taiwan is one of the main frontlines of the Cold War 2.0 between China and the US, in which Russia officially engaged in support of Beijing a mere 20 days before the invasion of Ukraine. This leads many analysts to suspect that the Chinese are looking at what is happening in Europe not only as a geopolitical opportunity, as they have brought the Kremlin to their side once and for all, but also to gauge how the West would react in the event of similar action in Taiwan.
