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U.S. upholds backing of Taiwan after CCP sends warplanes

The Associated Press

The United States has reaffirmed its support for Taiwan following the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) dispatch of warplanes near the island in an apparent attempt to intimidate its democratic government and test the resolve of the new U.S. presidential administration.

The U.S. State Department in late January 2021 said it was concerned by the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC’s) “pattern of ongoing attempts to intimidate its neighbors, including Taiwan.”

“We urge Beijing to cease its military, diplomatic, and economic pressure against Taiwan and instead engage in meaningful dialogue with Taiwan’s democratically elected representatives,” department spokesman Ned Price said in the statement.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) sent eight bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons and four fighter jets into its air defense identification zone just southwest of the island on January 23. The ministry said the PLA sent 16military aircraft of various types into the same area the next day.

The ministry said Taiwan responded by scrambling fighters, broadcasting radio warnings and “deploying air defense missile systems to monitor the activity.”

The PLA overflights were part of a long-standing pattern of incursions aimed at pressuring President Tsai Ing-wen’s government into caving to CCP demands to recognize Taiwan as part of the PRC. (Pictured: A Taiwan Air Force F-16, foreground, monitors a People’s Liberation Army Air Force H-6 bomber as it passes near Taiwan in February 2020.)

They come on the heels of U.S. President Joe Biden’s inauguration, emphasizing the island’s enduring position among the divisive issues between the U.S. and the PRC that also include human rights, trade disputes and, most recently, questions about the PRC’s initial response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S. State Department statement said Washington will continue to deepen ties with Taiwan and ensure its defense from PRC threats, while supporting a peaceful resolution of issues between the sides.

In another sign of support for Taiwan, the island’s de facto ambassador to Washington, Hsiao Bi-khim, was a guest at Biden’s inauguration.

Tsai has sought to bolster the island’s defenses with the purchase of billions of dollars in U.S. weapons, including upgraded F-16 fighter jets, armed drones, rocket systems and Harpoon missiles capable of hitting ships and land targets. She has also boosted support for Taiwan’s indigenous arms industry, including launching a program to build submarines to counter the CCP’s growing naval capabilities.

The PRC’s increased threats come as its economic and political enticements bear little fruit, leading it to stage war games and dispatch fighter jets and reconnaissance planes almost daily toward the island of 24 million people, which lies 160 kilometers off the PRC’s southeast coast across the Taiwan Strait.

 

IMAGE CREDIT: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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