Article in The Times today.
China flexes military muscle with drills in all four coastal seas
China’s military has conducted simultaneous drills in all four of its coastal seas while the US has begun target training in the Pacific with attack drones.
The four-seas drills are the latest in a series of military exercises ordered by Beijing that have
escalated tensions over Taiwan the democratic island which China has vowed to reunify with the mainland, but which has a defence pact with the United States.
In a sign of the growing tensions between the two superpowers in the region, the US
Air Force Magazine published an image of the American soldiers featuring an MQ-9 Reaper drone flying over a map of China on the arm patches of their uniforms, which Beijing’s state media decried as “an extremely arrogant provocation”.
The recent military activity has unnerved many in Taiwan, with as many as 57 per cent of islanders questioned by the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation saying they would like to see the purchase of
more defence equipment from the US.
“It shows a sense of urgency over national security on the part of the Taiwanese people when they are faced with the frequent and strong military threats from the mainland,” Yinglong You, the foundation’s chairman, told United Daily News, a Taiwanese newspaper.
The survey found that more than 60 per cent of the respondents believed that the US could assist Taiwan if China tried to invade the island, compared with about 30 per cent who did not believe Washington would become involved. The survey also found that 86 per cent of respondents considered themselves to be a separate nation from China and more than 50 per cent expressed “extreme dislike” for the Communist Party of China.
For months, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army has increased the military pressure around Taiwan, with frequent live-fire drills and air patrols. Beijing recently said it would no longer recognise the median line of the Taiwan Strait, the body of water that separates the island from the mainland, as demarcating areas of control.
The four-seas exercise is the second of its kind since last month, when state media said they were a response to the escalating tensions around Taiwan. The exercise in the Yellow Sea will continue until tomorrow, while drills in the Bohai Sea, the East China Sea and the South China Sea took place yesterday.
The Global Times, a party-run newspaper, warned against any drone attack against China, which it said would amount to “a real war, a war crime that destroys peace”.
“To China, that is an invasion and an aggression of war,” read the editorial. “Our only option is to strike hard at the aggressors and teach them a lesson they will never forget. If Washington wants to try its luck, the Chinese military and Chinese people will surely rise to the challenge and fight to the end.”
Bluster or 'stay away' message?