Tensions rose once again as China deployed almost a dozen warplanes to cross the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait on June 11.
The deployment came just days after 37 Chinese warplanes entered Taiwan's air defense zone. China also deployed four warships for "joint combat readiness patrols" in the area.
According to Taiwanese officials, they detected 24 Chinese fighter jets and bombers in the air, but only 10 crossed the median line. The line has long served as an unofficial sea and air border separating Taiwan and mainland China. But Beijing has grown increasingly belligerent in recent months and has crossed the line multiple times.
As a response, Taipei scrambled its own fighter jets as the Chinese war party crossed the median line. The frequent median crossings come amid a wider Chinese campaign of aggression toward Taiwan, which has seen Chinese forces surround the self-governed island multiple times in the past year as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) simulates invasion plans for the island. (Related: China preparing to launch an invasion of Taiwan, warns Chinese journalist.)
The CCP has long claimed Taiwan as its own territory, but the island split from the mainland in 1949 when the anti-communist forces fled there after losing the Chinese Civil War in the mainland. Beijing asserts that its incursions and drills are to protect China's sovereignty and to stop any "collusion" between Taiwan and the United States, the island's most important international ally and arms provider.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden's administration has adopted a policy of "strategic ambiguity" on whether Washington would intervene and support militarily if Beijing invades Taiwan. The president himself announced multiple times that the U.S. would not hesitate to do so. However, his White House staff have retracted his statements each time.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also warned that a war with China around Taiwan would be devastating for the global economy.
"The whole world has a stake in maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. The security of commercial shipping lanes and global supply chains depends on it," he said. "And so does freedom of navigation worldwide. Make no mistake: conflict in the Taiwan Strait would be devastating."
CCP begins another round of live-fire drills just north of Taiwan
As Taiwan's Western allies conduct massive drills in the Western Pacific, China already began military exercises, just two days after its warplanes crossed the median line in a separate area in the seas to the north of the island nation.
In connection with this, China's Maritime Safety Administration sent out a "no-sail zone" warning from late morning to mid-afternoon of June 13, for an area off Taizhou city in Zhejiang province for live fire exercises from warships. The agency further announced that CCP held separate exercises in another northern part of the East China Sea until June 14.
The said exercises were initiated about the same time a quadrilateral naval exercise involving the U.S., Japan, Canada and France was held in the Philippine Sea to Taiwan's southeast. According to a statement from the U.S. Seventh Fleet, the June 9 exercise included two carrier strike groups led by U.S. aircraft carriers USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan jointly operating for the first time since June 2020.
"The credibility of an integrated carrier strike force is the U.S. Navy's greatest deterrent to those who threaten the international rules-based order," said Rear Adm. Jennifer Couture, commander of Carrier Strike Group 11, aboard USS Nimitz. "Together with our allies and partners, we're demonstrating our capability to seamlessly integrate across all domains, our readiness to respond to any contingency, and our commitment to upholding freedom of navigation and overflight in the Indo-Pacific region."
The Seventh Fleet is the Navy's largest forward-deployed numbered fleet and routinely interacts and operates with allies and partners in preserving a "free and open" Indo-Pacific region, the statement included.
Visit WWIII.news to read more about the impending war China is waging against Taiwan, the U.S. and their allies.
Watch this video about the Biden administration plan to evacuate 80,000 people from the island nation ahead of a looming conflict with China.
This video is from the High Hopes channel on Brighteon.com.
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