Involved with the acute phase of the crisis between Russia and Ukraine, which threatens to devolve into a war in Eastern Europe, the United States faces a second threat on a front that was relatively calm: the Indo-Pacific.
Beijing reacted to US-Japanese naval maneuvers that culminated in the deployment of two groups of US aircraft carriers into the disputed South China Sea, and launched the biggest air incursion into Taiwan’s defenses since October.
The incidents took place on Sunday (23), and on Monday there was a new wave of Chinese military actions over Taiwan’s Adiz (air defense identification area, a kind of informal airspace that countries use to monitor threats).
On Sunday, there were 39 planes, 34 of them fighters, 4 specialized in electronic warfare and 1 bomber. This Monday morning, there were 10 fighter jets, 1 anti-submarine warfare aircraft and 2 J-16D, a new attack aircraft with electronic defenses.
The Taiwanese made intercepts with their fighter jets, after two difficult weeks, as the fleet of the country’s new frontline plane, the American F-16V, was out of operation due to the still unexplained downing of a device earlier this year. .
The US supports, politically and with arms sales, the Taiwanese government, although theoretically it accepts the principle that there is only one China, the one commanded by Beijing.
Beijing declined to comment, but the move suggests a resumption of large stocks. In October, in just four days, 148 planes tested the defenses of the autonomous island that the communist regime considers its own — on the 4th of that month, an all-time record of 56 aircraft was set.
Since then, the pace has slowed down, although it is a constant. This January, 70 aircraft had flown in the Taiwanese Adiz. The move is a reaction both to the maneuvers with the Japanese in the Philippine Sea, which ended on Sunday, and to the displacement of the two groups of aircraft carriers that participated in the exercise to the South China Sea.
Main bed of vital maritime routes for the Chinese economy, the sea is considered by Beijing as its backyard – with the militarization of islets and atolls, the dictatorship claims 85% of it for itself, which is contested by neighbors and the West.
“Operations like this allow us to improve credible combat capabilities, reassure our allies, and demonstrate our determination as a Navy to ensure regional stability and counter malevolent influences,” said USS Abraham Lincoln-led strike group commander JT Anderson.
This type of confrontation through military exercises has become intense since the US entered Cold War 2.0 with the Chinese in 2017, but has reached a peak in the last two years.
Biden’s government has increased the frequency of maneuvers emphasizing what it calls freedom of navigation in areas close to Chinese interests, and has established a military pact with Australia and Britain that could increase its ability to threaten routes from Beijing.
A mainland power, China depends on sea routes that are easy to block as they pass through straits controlled by rival countries.
The novelty of the situation is that this move is now taking place amid the worsening crisis in Europe, with NATO (military alliance led by Washington) reinforcing military positions with the fear of an invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
Vladimir Putin’s country wants a solution to the frozen civil war in the east of the country, which involves pro-Russian rebels, and took the opportunity to put on the table a menu of demands to contain NATO in the region. The impasse is set.
Throughout the crisis and also in the Russian move to crush an uprising in Kazakhstan, China has supported Putin and said both countries must be ready to act together against the West.
While there is no indication that the action in Taiwan is anything to go by with the Russians, the idea that the US may eventually have to deal with simultaneous crises on two distant sides of the world is inescapable, straining its capabilities for military engagement.
Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan even had to answer a question about that possibility at a recent press conference, quibbling over a Moscow-Beijing alliance.
In any case, both countries, historical adversaries, are very close militarily in reaction to Western pressures. Recently, they even carried out provocative naval maneuvers against the US and Japan allies.
On Monday, Beijing denied a report by US news agency Bloomberg that Xi asked Putin not to act in Ukraine during the Winter Olympics, which take place in China from February 4 to 20.
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