Two Chinas Policy

U.S. warship sails through Taiwan Strait after election

By Emerson Lim, Chiang Chin-yeh, Su Long-chi, Wang Yang-yu and Yu Hsiang

Taipei -- Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) and the U.S. 7th Fleet confirmed Friday that a United States warship recently sailed through the Taiwan Strait, less than one week after Taiwan's 2020 presidential and legislative elections.
The move was interpreted by some Taiwanese lawmakers as a warning to Beijing.
The transit happened Thursday with the U.S. warship approaching southwest of Taiwan and sailing north through the Taiwan Strait, a MND statement said Friday.
The MND did not identify the U.S. military vessel but said it was conducting "normal" navigation operations and Taiwan's Armed Forces fully monitored its movement.
Joe Keiley, spokesperson of the U.S. 7th Fleet, confirmed the transit in response to a query from CNA.
"The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Shiloh (CG 67) conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit Jan. 16 in accordance with international law," Keiley said in a statement.
"The ship's transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The U.S. Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows," he said.
The USS Shiloh is a forward deployed Ballistic Missile Defense Cruiser stationed out of Yokosuka, Japan.
The vessel's transit through the Taiwan Strait came five days after Taiwan's 2020 presidential and legislative elections, in which President Tsai Ing-wen 蔡英文, who ran for reelection, and her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won a landslide victory.
Following the elections, many foreign and domestic analysts predicted that Beijing is likely to increase pressure on Taiwan, with the flexing of military muscle a possible option.
Meanwhile, Taiwan legislators expressed different views on the U.S. warship's transit through the Taiwan Strait.
DPP lawmaker Tsai Shih-ying 蔡適應 said the transit showed Washington's support for Taiwan's democratic process, adding that the U.S. action provided a sense of security for the Taiwanese people.
Another DPP lawmaker Lo Chih-cheng 羅致政 said the timing of the transit could be read as the U.S. telling China not to overreact to the results of Taiwan's election, as Beijing has issued harsh statements over the past few days.

FONOPs

USS Chancellorsville sails through Taiwan Strait in message to China
By Lucas Tomlinson

For the first time since September, a U.S. warship has transited the Taiwan Strait.
"Guided-missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville (CG 62) conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit Nov. 12 (local time) in accordance with international law. 

The ship's transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” said Cmdr. Reann Mommsen, spokesperson for the U.S. 7th fleet.
“The U.S. Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows," he added.
The transit comes as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark Milley visits Japan for a meeting with Prime Minister Shinzō Abe to help repair diplomatic relations with South Korea after a recent spat over intelligence sharing between Tokyo and Seoul.
"All interactions between [Chinese] ships and aircraft were professional and routine” during the transit, a Navy official told Fox News.

The USS Chancellorsville, pictured here earlier this month, conducted the transit

Defense Secretary Mark Esper is set to begin on Wednesday a four-nation Asia tour with stops in South Korea, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam, according to the Pentagon.
The Taiwan Strait transit was the ninth by the U.S. Navy this year.
The last one occurred in late September, when the USS Antietam, another guided-missile cruiser conducted a similar transit.
That month Esper cautioned European nations from getting too cozy with China, which has been accused of intellectual property theft for decades and charged by the U.S. Justice Department to employ spies to steal state secrets in the United States, including sensitive military technology.
"The more dependent a country becomes on Chinese investment and trade, the more susceptible they are to coercion and retribution when they act outside of Beijing's wishes," Esper said in a speech at the Royal United Services Institute, a think tank in London.
Despite rising tensions in the Middle East, the Pentagon under Esper’s leadership has been attempting to pivot away from the region and toward China and Russia.
"China's technology theft for military gain is staggering," Esper said in London.
“Strategic competition with China will be the primary concern for U.S. national security for years to come,” Randall G. Schriver, assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs, told reporters at the Pentagon in May.
“We certainly don't seek conflict with China and it doesn't preclude cooperation where our interests align,” Schriver added.
Asked about Taiwan Strait transits, Schriver said the strait is international water and “we transit it as we see fit.”
The transit by a US warship comes after Chinese authorities have cracked down on pro-Democracy protesters in Hong Kong, arresting more than 3,000 since June, according to the Associated Press.

FONOPs

Canadian warship sails through Taiwan Strait

By NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE


Canada has sailed a frigate through the Taiwan Strait in what officials in Taipei called a freedom of navigation operation, the first since the arrest of a Huawei executive set off a deepening dispute between Ottawa and Beijing.
The HMCS Regina, one Canada’s 12 frigates, sailed through the waters between Taiwan and China on Tuesday. 

It was accompanied by Naval Replenishment Unit Asterix.
The two ships sailed from Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam, where they made their first-ever call on a naval base there.
“The most practical route between Cam Ranh Bay and Northeast Asia involves sailing through the Taiwan Strait,” Jessica Lamirande, spokesperson for Canada’s Department of National Defence, said in a statement. 

“Transit through the Taiwan Strait is not related to making any statement.”
Another frigate, the HMCS Calgary, passed through the Taiwan Strait last October, the department said.
But the Canadian naval transit, which is unlikely to please Beijing, forms “part of the new Canadian position towards China,” said Guy Saint-Jacques, the former Canadian ambassador to China, after the arrest of Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou and subsequent Chinese arrest of two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defence released a statement Wednesday that called the passage of the two Canadian ships a “freedom of navigation” operation. 

Taiwan’s state-owned Central News Agency also said that the HMCS Regina activated its automatic identification system during the transit, which allows the general public a view into its movements. Military ships often keep that system turned off to avoid advertising their position.
“In terms of movement of ships, you don’t have to announce ahead of time what they are called. You just have to go through the strait, and it’s obvious what we are trying to demonstrate,” Mr. Saint-Jacques said.
”The Trudeau government is starting to assert itself more, and questions like freedom of navigation are important ones,” Mr. Saint-Jacques said.
“It sends the signal that Canada is aligning with the U.S. and with other countries like Australia and France that have sent ships to the Taiwan Strait – that freedom of navigation is important and that we don’t recognize Chinese claims to sovereignty in that part of the world.”
Taiwan is a self-ruling region with its own military and foreign policy that Beijing claims as part of its territory. 

China has repeatedly conducted military drills simulating the invasion of Taiwan, and in recent years has sent bombers on “encirclement” flights. 

Beijing has never ruled out the use of force to bring Taipei under its command.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Defence Intelligence Agency called Taiwan a “primary driver for China’s military modernization.” 

In its 2019 China Military Power Report, the U.S. said “Beijing’s anticipation that foreign forces would intervene in a Taiwan scenario led the PLA to develop a range of systems to deter and deny foreign regional force projection,” the report states. 

The PLA is China’s People’s Liberation Army.
The U.S. regularly sends its own naval vessels through the Taiwan Strait, including most recently on May 22. 

A French frigate also passed through the waters in April, an unusual voyage for a European military ship.
Beijing typically responds with anger at those movements, calling them illegal and lodging diplomatic complaints.
Canada’s military has taken a more active role in Asia in recent years, including sending a submarine and two frigates to the region last year to “build relationships, work with trusted international partners, and contribute to multinational efforts to counter North Korea’s maritime smuggling activity while in the region,” Ms. Lamirande said.

Stop Chinese Bullying

Germany may join US in opposing China by sending warship through Taiwan Strait, breaking decades of military non-confrontation

politico.com 

German navy supply vessel A1411 Berlin is moored during the opening parade of the 830th port anniversary in Hamburg in May. 

Germany is considering a break from decades of military non-confrontation.
High ranking officials are contemplating sending a warship through the Taiwan Strait – joining the United States and France in challenging Beijing’s claims to what the West regards as an international waterway.
If Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government actually goes ahead, it will be a remarkable revision of its we-keep-out-of-conflict reflexes. 

Germany will be openly backing its allies in a strategy certain to be found provocative by the country’s enforcers of non-combatant passivity.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel takes part in a disussion at an event in Frankfurt am Main on Wednesday.

Recent examples of Germany’s reluctance to engage include the withdrawal of its navy from the combat zone during the West’s Libyan intervention in 2011, caveats on its troop deployments in Afghanistan and its decision not to participate directly in attacks on Islamic State forces in Syria – unlike its Nato neighbours Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and France.
A German official informed me of the Taiwan Strait plan last month. 

Last week, a second German official, at my request, confirmed its discussion by the defence ministry. No firm decision was expected before the end of the summer.
The strait in question is the body of water between China and Taiwan, which Beijing considers to be its territorial zone. 

When a French frigate transited in April, it was shadowed by Chinese military and warned to leave. Beijing said it made “stern representations” to Paris about the vessel’s “illegal” passage.
Later that month, the United States sent two destroyers into the strait “demonstrating the US’s commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific”, according to an American spokesman.
The US has prioritised countering China’s military rise since the early days of Barack Obama’s presidency. 

Why would Germany get involved? 

Members in Merkel’s government see a double opportunity, given Berlin’s lousy relations with US President Donald Trump and wide disrespect elsewhere for its hide-under-the-bed routine.
It certainly would not hurt to back up the US at a time when Washington has suspended threats of tariffs for six months on imported German cars.
The naval mission would also be an opportunity to show up France, which likes to portray itself as the European Union’s sole functional military power and which has responded to Merkel’s opposition to most of President Emmanuel Macron’s reform proposals for the EU by becoming one of Germany’s sharpest critics.

The guided-missile destroyer USS William P Lawrence practices ship maneuvers as it transits the Pacific Ocean in June 2018. 

France has just spent two years and €1.3 billion (US$1.46 billion) to refurbish its atomic-powered carrier, the Charles de Gaulle. 

French generals have accused Berlin of running a “non-combat” army. 

Macron himself has said that Germany’s growth model, based on profiting from imbalances in the euro zone, is at an end.
His openness has emboldened French commentators to pick up the now authorised lash. 

Zaki Laidi, a professor at Sciences Po, the French political science university, wrote last month that Merkel “has done absolutely nothing’’ to change Germany’s role as a rich global bystander protected by America.
The question now is whether the government, faced with deepening political weakness at home, will challenge that portrayal and actually follow through with the plan for projecting power.
The signs are not overwhelmingly promising. 

Merkel’s apparent valedictory speech at the Harvard University commencement last week was a time warp moment – a pretend flashback to a time when Germany was the uncontested European leader, bathing in cash, moderation and the overdrawn favour of Obama.
In reality, Germany is politically riven to the edge of instability. 

Its economic prospects are dim. 

Merkel’s paralytic coalition with the Social Democrats has “cave-in” scrawled all over it two years before she is expected to leave office in 2021.
Polls over the weekend measured the depth of Germany’s cracks.

A tugboat escorts French Navy frigate Vendemiaire on arrival for a goodwill visit at a port in Metro Manila, Philippines in March 2018. 

For the first time since the Green Party became a player in the early 1980s, the environmentalist movement surpassed Merkel’s Christian Democrats in a projection of national election results. 

The Social Democrats sank to a historical low, just a point ahead of the far-right Alternative for Germany.
Economically, what Merkel once called Germany’s “Beacon to the World” keeps flashing dimmer shades of yellow. 

The German Chamber of Commerce and Industry reports that gross domestic product growth will fall to 0.6 per cent this year, with little prospect for improvement in 2020.
Worse still: the chancellor’s chosen successor, CDU party leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, is failing in her job preparation. 

A poll last week showed that 70 per cent of the Germans think she is not up to the task.
Among her ideas: a “symbolic project” for Germany and France to jointly build an aircraft carrier to demonstrate the EU’s role as a “security and peace power” – without detailing its mission. 

Forced to deal with her protege’s fantasy, while refusing herself to meet Nato’s spending targets, Merkel has been cornered into saying “it’s right and good”.
In this context, launching a naval in-your-face operation off the coast of Taiwan would constitute a groundbreaking but unfamiliar act of valour.

Admirably, there are German officials who want to combat the notion that the country is an irresponsible and non-committal ally. 

More power to them. 

The place to do that is the international waters of the Taiwan Strait. 

Now, the German navy needs to get that far.

Rival South China Sea visions in spotlight as Washington, Beijing front Shangri-La Dialogue

By Brad Lendon

Hong Kong -- With China-US relations already strained amid an escalating trade war, attention is about to turn to a familiar arena -- the South China Sea.
After years of stand-offs and brinkmanship in the hotly contested region, acting US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan is expected to unveil the Pentagon's new Indo-Pacific strategy at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Saturday.
Intriguingly, just one day later Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Wei Fenghe is scheduled to speak about Beijing's role in the Indo-Pacific -- the highest-ranking Chinese official to appear at Asia's premier defense conference in eight years.
Their presence is significant. 

Beijing claims almost the entire 1.3 million square mile South China Sea as its sovereign territory and aggressively asserts its stake, with Xi Jinping saying it will never give up "any inch of territory."
US military officials, meanwhile, have vowed to continue enforcing a free and open Indo-Pacific.

The Chinese Type 52D guided missile destroyer Guiyang participates in a naval parade on April 23, 2019.

William Choong, senior fellow at the Shangri-La Dialogue, said in a tweet Tuesday that the presence of both Wei and Shanahan would set up "a clash of two visions — the US/Japan-led 'free and open' Indo-Pacific and China's 'Asia for Asians.'"
Analyst Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the US Pacific Command's Joint Intelligence Center, told CNN: "Chinese leaders now recognize the value of multilateral defense venues and want to deny the US a monopoly of great power influence."
US intentions for the region have already been telegraphed strongly.
The Pentagon has stepped up freedom-of-navigation operations to as often as weekly. 

And the commander of the US Pacific Air Forces said this month that Air Force jets were flying in and around the South China Sea almost daily.
Washington has also sent warships through the Taiwan Strait separating China from what it calls its renegade province several times this year.
One of Washington's Taiwan Strait operations included a US Coast Guard cutter, which later sailed into the South China Sea — sending the fifth arm of its military and its main maritime law enforcement agency into the Pacific fray.
More robust US armament packages also seem to be part of the plan. 

For bilateral exercises with the Philippines in April, the US loaded the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp with 10 F-35B stealth fighters — four more than it normally carries — and sailed it into the South China Sea.

The amphibious assault ship USS Wasp transits the waters of the South China Sea with a large load of F-35 fighters.

Of course, it's not just the US that's active around the region. 

Its allies and partners are also involved.
France sent a ship through the Taiwan Strait this year, and is showing off its Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier on the sidelines of the conference. 

In May alone, Japanese, Indian, Philippine and US ships took part in a multilateral South China Sea exercise — while conference host Singapore held live-fire drills with India. 

A four-ship Australian naval force also visited countries around the region in a three-month trip that ended this week.
Meanwhile, US officials have bigger plans for the coming year.
In a conference call with reporters this month, US chief of naval operations Adm. John Richardson reiterated plans for the forward deployment of two littoral combat ships — fast, maneuverable warships designed for shallow-water operations — to Singapore this year. 

The ships would be the US Navy assets stationed closest to the South China Sea.
And in March, the commander of US Army forces in the Pacific, Gen. Robert Brown, announced plans to train 10,000 US troops for combat in "a South China Sea scenario." 

The Philippines and Thailand were mentioned as possible destinations for the troops.
The US pressure on Beijing extends back to Washington, where a bipartisan group of senators last week introduced legislation that would impose sanctions on Chinese companies and individuals who help the PLA's South China Sea build-up.
"China has been bully in both the South and East China Seas, encroaching on and intimidating its neighbors. Such aggressive behavior cannot go on unchecked," Sen. Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, said in a statement.
For its part, China hasn't backed down at all: launching new warships, touting new weapons, keeping its forces active in the South China Sea — around Taiwan and beyond — and blasting Washington.
Beijing says it is the US that endangers peace in the region.

What are China's naval goals? The West can't wait to find out

On May 12, it launched two Type-52D destroyers in a single day — the 19th and 20th of what are expected to be 30 ships in that class.
A US Defense Department report released in early May said China had Asia's largest navy, with more than 300 ships and submarines.
Military analyst Euan Graham, who was aboard an Australian warship during a recent South China Sea operation, said it and other Australian and US ships operating in the region were all closely monitored by the Chinese navy.
"The ubiquity of PLAN (PLA Navy) vessels shadowing other warships in the (South China Sea) suggests that China's surface force has grown big enough to be able to 'close-mark' at will," Graham wrote on The Strategist blog.
Meanwhile, the PLA Navy has held training exercises with Russia off China's east coast and with Thailand to the south.
To the north, Chinese air force jets in April conducted what Taiwan said was their most "provocative" mission in years in the Taiwan Strait, crossing the median line between the island and the mainland.
"It was an intentional, reckless and provocative action. We've informed regional partners and condemn China for such behavior," Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
But it's clear Taiwan can't expect much quarter from China.
A May report on the PLA's English-language website touted a new amphibious assault vehicle as "the world's most advanced." 

With its help, combined with other weapons in China's arsenal, "the People's Liberation Army is well positioned to deal with Taiwan secessionists and potential island disputes."
The Shangri-La Dialogue touts itself as a venue "where ministers debate the region's most pressing security challenges, engage in important bilateral talks and come up with fresh solutions together."
But against that backdrop of bluster and build-up, it's hard to expect any compromises to emerge from what Wei and Shanahan have to say.

Stopping the Chinese Bully

U.S. Navy again sails through Taiwan Strait

By Idrees Ali

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Preble (DDG 88) transits the Indian Ocean March 29, 2018. Picture taken March 29, 2018. 

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military said it sent two Navy ships through the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday, its latest transit through the strategic waterway.
Taiwan is one of a growing number of flashpoints in the U.S.-China relationship, which also include a trade war, U.S. sanctions and China’s increasingly muscular military posture in the South China Sea, where the United States also conducts freedom-of-navigation patrols.
The voyage will be viewed by Taiwan as a sign of support from the Trump administration amid growing friction between Taipei and Beijing, which views the island as a breakaway province.
The transit was carried out by the destroyer Preble and the Navy oil tanker Walter S. Diehl, a U.S. military spokesman told Reuters.
“The ships’ transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Commander Clay Doss, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet, said in a statement.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said the two U.S. ships had sailed north through the Taiwan Strait and that they had monitored the mission.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said there was no cause for alarm.
“Nothing abnormal happened during it, please everyone rest assured,” she wrote on her Facebook page.
U.S. warships have sailed through the Taiwan Strait at least once a month since the start of this year. The United States restarted such missions on a regular basis last July.
The United States has no formal ties with Taiwan but is bound by law to help provide the island with the means to defend itself and is its main source of arms.
The Pentagon says Washington has sold Taipei more than $15 billion in weaponry since 2010.
China has been ramping up pressure to assert its sovereignty over the island, which it considers part of “one China” and sacred Chinese territory, to be brought under Beijing’s control by force if needed.
Beijing said a recent Taiwan Strait passage by a French warship, first reported by Reuters, was illegal.
China has repeatedly sent military aircraft and ships to circle Taiwan on exercises in the past few years and worked to isolate it internationally, whittling down its few remaining diplomatic allies.
The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency released a report earlier this year describing Taiwan as the “primary driver” for China’s military modernization, which it said had made major advances in recent years.
On Sunday, the Preble sailed near Scarborough Shoal claimed by China in the South China Sea.

Military Sealift Command fleet replenishment oiler USNS Walter S. Diehl (T-AO 193) pulls alongside hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) to deliver supplies and mail by a connected replenishment in the South China Sea August 15, 2016. Picture taken August 15, 2016. 

Two US warships sail through Taiwan Strait in challenge to China

Destroyers William P Lawrence and Stethem transited through the waterway on Sunday as Pentagon ups the ante with Beijing

Reuters

The guided-missile destroyer USS Stethem, pictured, sailed through the Taiwan Strait with USS William P Lawrence on Sunday. 

The US military has sent two navy warships through the Taiwan Strait as the Pentagon increases the frequency of movement through the strategic waterway despite opposition from China.
Sunday’s voyage risks further raising tensions with China but will likely be viewed by Taiwan as a sign of support from the Trump administration amid growing friction between Taipei and Beijing.

Taiwan is one of a growing number of flashpoints in the US-China relationship, which also include a trade war, US sanctions and China’s increasingly muscular military posture in the South China Sea, where the United States also conducts freedom-of-navigation patrols.
The two destroyers were identified as the William P Lawrence and Stethem. 

The 180km-wide (112-mile) Taiwan Strait separates Taiwan from China.
“The ships’ transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Commander Clay Doss, a spokesman for the US navy’s seventh fleet, said in a statement.
Doss said there were no unsafe or unprofessional interactions with other countries’ vessels during the transit.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said the US ships had sailed north through the strait.
“US ships freely passing through the Taiwan Strait is part of the mission of carrying out the Indo-Pacific strategy,” it said in a statement.
There was no immediate comment from China.
The United States has no formal ties with Taiwan but is bound by law to help provide the island with the means to defend itself and is its main source of arms.
The Pentagon says Washington has sold Taipei more than $15bn in weaponry since 2010.
China has been ramping up pressure to assert its sovereignty over the island, which it considers a wayward province of “one China” and "sacred" Chinese territory.
It said a recent Taiwan Strait passage by a French warship, first reported by Reuters on Wednesday, was “illegal”.
Beijing’s concerns about Taiwan are likely to factor strongly into this year’s Chinese defense budget, following a stern New Year’s speech from Xi Jinping, threatening to attack Taiwan should it not accept Chinese rule.
China has repeatedly sent military aircraft and ships to circle the island on drills in the past few years and worked to isolate it internationally, whittling down its few remaining diplomatic allies.

In rare move, French warship passes through Taiwan Strait

By Idrees Ali, Phil Stewart

Tugboat escorts French Navy frigate Vendemiaire on arrival for a 5-day goodwill visit at a port in Metro Manila, Philippines March 12, 2018. 

WASHINGTON -- A French warship passed through the strategic Taiwan Strait this month, U.S. officials told Reuters, a rare voyage by a vessel of a European country that is likely to be welcomed by Washington but increase tension with Beijing.
The passage, which was confirmed by China, is a sign that U.S. allies are increasingly asserting freedom of navigation in international waterways near China. 

It could open the door for other allies, such as Japan and Australia, to consider similar operations.
The French operation comes amid increasing tensions between the United States and China. 

Taiwan is one of a growing number of flashpoints in the U.S.-China relationship, which also include a trade war, U.S. sanctions and China’s increasingly muscular military posture in the South China Sea, where the United States also conducts freedom of navigation patrols.
Two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a French military vessel carried out the transit in the narrow waterway between China and Taiwan on April 6.
One of the officials identified the warship as the French frigate Vendemiaire and said it was shadowed by the Chinese military. 

The official was not aware of any previous French military passage through the Taiwan Strait.
The officials said that as a result of the passage, China notified France it was no longer invited to a naval parade to mark the 70 years since the founding of China’s Navy. 

Warships from India, Australia and several other nations participated.
China said on Thursday it had lodged “stern representations” with France for what it called an “illegal” passage.
Colonel Patrik Steiger, the spokesman for France’s military chief of staff, declined to comment on an operational mission.
The U.S. officials did not speculate on the purpose of the passage or whether it was designed to assert freedom of navigation.

MOUNTING TENSIONS
The French strait passage comes against the backdrop of increasingly regular passages by U.S. warships through the strategic waterway. 

Last month, the United States sent Navy and Coast Guard ships through the Taiwan Strait.
The passages upset China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory. 

Beijing has been ramping up pressure to assert its "sovereignty" over the island.
Chen Chung-chi, spokesman for Taiwan’s defense ministry, told Reuters by phone the strait is part of busy international waters and it is “a necessity” for vessels from all countries to transit through it. He said Taiwan’s defense ministry will continue to monitor movement of foreign vessels in the region.
“This is an important development both because of the transit itself but also because it reflects a more geopolitical approach by France towards China and the broader Asia-Pacific,” said Abraham Denmark, a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia.
The transit is a sign that countries like France are not only looking at China through the lens of trade but from a military standpoint as well, Denmark said.
Last month, France and China signed deals worth billions of euros during a visit to Paris by Chinese dictator Xi Jinping. 

French President Emmanuel Macron wants to forge a united European front to confront Chinese advances in trade and technology.
“It is important to have other countries operating in Asia to demonstrate that this is just not a matter of competition between Washington and Beijing, that what China has been doing represents a broader challenge to a liberal international order,” Denmark, who is with the Woodrow Wilson Center think-tank in Washington, added.
Washington has no formal ties with Taiwan but is bound by law to help provide the island with the means to defend itself and is its main source of arms.

Taiwan blasts China for reckless and provocative fighter jet incursion

Taiwanese news media said the last time Chinese jets had crossed the line was in 2011
Agence France-Presse

A spokesman for Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, above, called China’s flights “provocative and damaging the cross-straits status quo”. 

Taipei hit out at China on Sunday for what it said was a “reckless and provocative” incursion by two fighter jets across a largely respected line dividing the two sides in the Taiwan Strait.
The Defence Ministry said Taiwan scrambled its own aircraft on Sunday morning and broadcast warnings after two J-11 fighter jets crossed over the “median line” within the waters that separate the island from the mainland.
“At 11am, March 31, 2 PLAAF J-11 jets violated the long-held tacit agreement by crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Twitter.
“It was an intentional, reckless and provocative action. We’ve informed regional partners and condemn China for such behaviour,” the ministry added.

A file photo from May 2018 shows a Taiwanese Air Force F-16 fighter aircraft, left, flying alongside a Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force H-6K bomber.

China has ramped up the number of fighter and warship crossings near Taiwan or through the straits in recent years, rattling nerves on the island at a time when relations are at a low point.
But it is highly unusual for them to cross the so-called median line, a widely agreed upon boundary that passes through the middle of the straits.

Taiwanese news media said the last time Chinese jets had crossed the line was in 2011.
That incident was portrayed by both sides as an inadvertent mistake by two jets responding to a nearby US spy plane.
But on Sunday, Taipei described the latest incursion as a deliberate act.
Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang called the flights “provocative and damaging the cross-straits status quo”.
The flights come a week after the US sailed a destroyer and a coastguard ship through the Taiwan Strait, angering Beijing.
Although the straits are an international waterway China often hits out when US or other western navy ships pass through them.
Beijing sees Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting unification, even though the two sides have been ruled separately since the end of a civil war in 1949.
Washington diplomatically recognises China over Taiwan but remains the island’s chief military ally and arms supplier.
Earlier this month Taiwan said it had made a formal request to the US for new fighter jets.

A file photo of the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur. The flights come a week after the US sailed a destroyer and a coastguard ship through the Taiwan Strait.

Since 2002, the US has repeatedly denied such requests, fearing a possible backlash from Beijing.
But in that time China has massively increased spending on its armed forces, including highly advanced fifth-generation jet fighters.
That has left Taiwan with an ageing air force that analysts say is outgunned and in desperate need of an upgrade.
China has significantly stepped up diplomatic and military pressure on Taiwan since the Beijing-sceptic President Tsai Ing-wen took office in 2016, including staging a series of military exercises near the island.
She will be fighting for reelection in January 2020.
Last week Tsai made a brief stop in Hawaii to deliver a speech, prompting China to lodge an official protest with Washington.

US sends 2 warships through Taiwan Strait ahead of China trade talks

By Samuel Chamberlain, Lucas Tomlinson

The USS Curtis Wilbur, one of two ships to pass through the Taiwan Strait on Sunday. 

Two American warships sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Sunday to send a message to the Chinese government ahead of high-level trade talks between the two nations.
The U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer Curtis Wilbur and U.S. Coast Guard cutter Bertholf sailed through the strait, a body of water separating Taiwan from mainland China that is approximately 100 miles wide and is considered a hot spot for any potential conflict.
Cmdr. Clayton Doss, a spokesman for the Navy 7th Fleet, said in a statement that the ships had conducted a "routine Taiwan Strait transit March 24-25 [local time] in accordance with international law. The ships' transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific."
The transit marked the third time in three months that the U.S. sailed warships through the strait, which is officially considered international waters. 

However, China has considered Taiwan its own territory to be brought under its control -- by force if needed -- and has monitored foreign military activity in the waterway closely.

Beijing has considered control over Taiwan a matter of national pride, as well as a key to its access to the Pacific, the South China Sea and elsewhere. 

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen warned last month that the military threat from China was increasing "every day."

The transit came days before a high-level American delegation led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer are scheduled to arrive in China for the eighth round of trade negotiations aimed at resolving a long-running dispute.
The trade dispute escalated last year after the U.S. made several complaints, including that China was stealing U.S. trade secrets and was forcing companies to give them technology to access its market. President Trump imposed tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese imports, about half what the United States buys from that country. 

China retaliated with tariffs on about $110 billion of U.S. items.

US warships sail through the Taiwan Strait again, putting pressure on Beijing

• Two US Navy warships — the destroyer USS Stethem and the fleet oiler USNS Cesar Chavez — conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit Monday.
• The passage sent the message to Beijing that the US will "fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows" and that these trips through the closely watched waterway will occur regularly.
• Monday's trip marks the fourth since October and the fifth since the US Navy restarted the practice of sending surface combatants through the strait last July.
• Chinese warships trailed the US ships.
• News of the latest transit comes as the Trump administration announces that the US and China are close to an agreement on trade.

By Ryan Pickrell

Two US Navy warships sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Monday, sending a message to Beijing, which has warned the US to "tread lightly" in the closely watched waterway.
The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Stethem and the replenishment oiler USNS Cesar Chavez navigated a "routine" Taiwan Strait transit Monday, the US Pacific Fleet told Business Insider in an emailed statement.
"The ships' transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The US Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows," the Pacific Fleet said.
The two US Navy vessels that passed through the Taiwan Strait were shadowed by People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) warships.
The passage is the fourth since October and the fifth since the US Navy restarted the practice of sending surface combatants through the strait last July.
The Taiwan Strait is a roughly 80-mile international waterway that separates the democratic island from the communist mainland, and China regularly bristles when US Navy vessels sail through. When a US destroyer and a fleet oiler transited the strait in January, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the passage "provocative behavior," accusing the US of "threatening the safety" of those nearby.
Beijing considers Taiwan, a self-ruled territory, to be a renegade province, and it firmly opposes US military support for the island, be that arms sales, protection assurances, or even just the US military operating in the area. 

China has repeatedly urged the US to keep its distance from Taiwan, but the US Navy has continued its "routine" trips through the strait. 

"We see the Taiwan Strait as another (stretch of) international waters, so that's why we do the transits," Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson said in January.
The rhetoric used by the Navy to characterize the Taiwan Strait transits is almost identical to that used to describe US freedom-of-navigation operations (FONOPs) in the South China Sea.
The Navy has already conducted two FONOPs this year, angering Beijing both times.

Two U.S. Navy ships pass through Taiwan Strait, opposing China

Reuters

WASHINGTON -- The United States sent two Navy ships through the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday in the third such operation this year, as the U.S. military increases the frequency of transits through the strategic waterway despite opposition from China.
The voyage will be viewed in self-ruled Taiwan as a sign of support from U.S. President Donald Trump’s government amid growing friction between Taipei and Beijing.
“The ships’ transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” U.S. Pacific Fleet said in a statement.
“The U.S. Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows.”
It said the passage was carried out by the destroyer USS Stockdale and the Pecos, a replenishment vessel.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said it was a normal transit through international waters in the Taiwan Strait and Taiwan forces had monitored the passage of the ships.
China’s foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a regular briefing on Thursday that Beijing had expressed its concern over the passage to the United States.

The U.S. patrol comes ahead of an expected meeting between President Trump and Chinese dictator Xi Jinping this week in Argentina on the sidelines of a G20 summit.
The U.S. Navy conducted a similar mission in the strait’s international waters in July, which had been the first such voyage in about a year.
The latest operation shows the U.S. Navy is increasing the pace of strait passages.
Washington has no formal ties with Taiwan, but is bound by law to help it defend itself and is the island’s main source of arms. 

The Pentagon says Washington has sold Taiwan more than $15 billion in weaponry since 2010.
Over the weekend, Taiwan’s ruling pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party suffered heavy losses in mayoral and county elections to the China-friendly Kuomintang, which has been welcomed by Beijing.
Taiwan is one of a growing number of flashpoints in the U.S.-China relationship, which also include a trade war, U.S. sanctions and China’s increasingly muscular military posture in the South China Sea, where the United States also conducts freedom of navigation patrols.

Sina Delenda Est

U.S. Sails Warships Through Taiwan Strait in Show of Force to China
By LUIS MARTINEZ

Flying with the US Navy as it keeps tabs on China over the South China Sea.

Two U.S. Navy warships sailed through the international waters of the Taiwan Strait on Monday, the body of water separating China and Taiwan, the island nation that China considers a breakaway province.
The transit could increase tensions between the U.S. and China as both countries are involved in a trade dispute and as the U.S. voices concerns over China’s militarization of the South China Sea.
“USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG 54) and USS Antietam (CG 54) conducted a routine Taiwan Strait Transit on Oct. 22, in accordance with international law,” Cmdr. Nate Christensen, Deputy Spokesman, US Pacific Fleet. ”
“The ships’ transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” he added. “The U.S. Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows.”
A similar transit by two U.S. destroyers occurred in July, the first time the Navy had carried out a mission like that in more than a year.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry first confirmed the transit in a statement.
“The Ministry of National Defense said today that two US ships have sailed from the south to the north through the Taiwan Strait,” said a translation of the statement.
“The Ministry of National Defense pointed out that the US ship routinely passed the international waters of the Taiwan Strait, and the relevant details were explained by the US government,” it added.
While the U.S. and China cooperate in denuclearizing North Korea, tensions have increased as both the U.S. and China have engaged in a trade war.
There are also tensions between the two countries over China's growing military presence on man-made islands in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
Earlier this month a Chinese Navy ship came within 45 yards of the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Decatur as it carried out a freedom of navigation passage through international waters close to those islands.
Another irritant in the U.S.-China relationship continues to be U.S. support for Taiwan.
The U.S. continues to sell military weapons to the island nation even though it does not have diplomatic relations with Taiwan. 

Two-China Policy

U.S. warships pass through Taiwan Strait amid China tensions

By Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali, Jess Macy Yu

WASHINGTON/TAIPEI -- Two U.S. warships passed through the Taiwan Strait on Saturday on a voyage that will likely be viewed in the self-ruled island as a sign of support by President Donald Trump amid heightened tension with China.
“Two U.S. Navy ships conducted a routine transit through the international waters of the Taiwan Strait on July 7-8 (local time),” Captain Charlie Brown, a spokesman for U.S. Pacific Fleet, told Reuters in a statement.
“U.S. Navy Ships transit between the South China Sea and East China Sea via the Taiwan Strait and have done so for many years,” Brown said.
U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the destroyers USS Mustin and USS Benfold carried out the passage.
Earlier on Saturday, Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said the ships were moving in a northeastern direction, adding that the situation was in accordance with regulations.
Washington has no formal ties with Taiwan but is bound by law to help it defend itself and is the island’s main source of arms. 

China regularly says Taiwan is the most sensitive issue in its ties with the United States.
The passage through the Taiwan Strait, the first such one by a U.S. Navy ship in about a year, follows a series of Chinese military drills around the island that have stoked tensions between Taipei and Beijing.
China claims Taiwan as its own and has never renounced the use of force to bring under its control what it sees as a wayward province. 

Taiwan has shown no interest in being governed by the ruling Communist Party in Beijing.
The move comes as a U.S.-China trade fight is seen as dragging on for a potentially prolonged period, as the world’s two biggest economies flex their muscles with no sign of negotiations to ease tensions.
Reuters first reported last month that the United States was considering sending a warship and had examined plans for an aircraft carrier passage, but ultimately did not pursue that option perhaps because of concerns about upsetting China.
The last time a U.S. aircraft carrier transited the Taiwan Strait was in 2007, during the administration of George W. Bush, and some U.S. military officials believe a carrier transit is overdue.
U.S. overtures towards Taiwan, from unveiling a new de facto embassy to passing the Taiwan Travel Act, which encourages U.S. officials to visit, have further escalated tension between Beijing and Taipei.
U.S. Defence Secretary Jim Mattis discussed the delicate issue of Taiwan during his trip to China last month.
“The U.S. sending military ships through the Taiwan Strait is both a demonstration of its continuing support to Taiwan and of its willingness to exercise its maritime rights in China’s periphery,” said Abraham Denmark, a former deputy assistant secretary of defence for East Asia under Barack Obama.
China has alarmed Taiwan by ramping up military exercises this year, including flying bombers and other military aircraft around the island and sending its carrier through the narrow Taiwan Strait separating it from Taiwan.
In recent months, China’s air force has held military manoeuvres near the island, which Taipei has called intimidation.
China’s hostility toward Taiwan has grown since Tsai Ing-wen from the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party won presidential elections on the island in 2016.

Sick Carrier of Asia

China flexing aircraft carrier muscle, but so far it's a paper tiger
By KATSUJI NAKAZAWA

The Liaoning, China's first and only aircraft carrier, at sea on Dec. 24, 2016. 

TOKYO -- In an unprecedented show of force, China dispatched its first and only aircraft carrier on an extensive training mission amid rising tensions with the U.S. late last year.
The Liaoning left its home port in Qingdao, Shandong Province, on Dec. 20, a month before Donald Trump's inauguration as the new U.S. president, and entered the Western Pacific via the East China Sea.
The Liaoning then went to the South China Sea and sailed north, passing through the Taiwan Strait, before returning to Qingdao on Jan. 13. 

The carrier's long voyage made a big splash internationally as it involved transiting three flashpoints along the way.
The three flashpoints are the East China Sea, the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.
"The aim of the Chinese aircraft carrier's latest cruise was [to send a message to] China's own people, not Trump or Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen," said a Chinese researcher specializing in China's domestic politics and national security issues.
The researcher made the remarks at the end of last year, without elaborating. 

A close look at subsequent Chinese media reports gives some insight into the researcher's thinking.
Chinese media outlets gave extensive coverage to what they described as the Liaoning's "practical" training exercises, with state-run China Central Television reporting on them on its main 7:00 p.m. news program on Jan. 13.
Chinese media outlets are all under the sway of the Communist Party's Publicity Department, the ruling party's propaganda body. 

The recent flurry of media reports about the Liaoning is part of China's "public opinion warfare."
China's "three warfares" strategy consists of "public opinion warfare," "psychological warfare" and "legal warfare."
It would be safe to say that the Publicity Department tried to reassure the public about the strength of the Chinese military and dispel concerns over anticipated threats from the Trump administration.

Paper tiger
But the truth is that the Liaoning still lacks combat capabilities.
"Carrier-based aircraft are slow to take off. Even if many such planes finally took off in the event of a military contingency, most of them would have to [return and] land on the carrier before actually launching operations," said a source familiar with the Chinese military.
There are at least three reasons for the Liaoning's lack of combat capabilities.

The Chinese aircraft carrier is not equipped with catapults for aircraft launches. 

Chinese carrier-borne planes cannot carry enough fuel for long operations. 

China also lacks know-how about the combat operations of carrier battle groups, which include numerous support ships.
The Liaoning, therefore, pales before its U.S. rivals.
A U.S. aircraft carrier is equipped with multiple catapults, allowing up to 50 planes to take off in quick succession. 

The U.S. Navy has also accumulated extensive know-how about conducting combat operations of carrier battle groups over the past half-century.
The aircraft catapult is a difficult technology to master. 

The Liaoning has no such device for launching aircraft at speeds sufficient for flight. 

The carrier can carry up to 20 planes. But they cannot quickly take off from the carrier.

The Liaoning entered service a little over four years ago.
China purchased the Varyag, an incomplete ex-Soviet aircraft carrier, as scrap from Ukraine, as it did not have the ability to build a carrier on its own. 

The Varyag was refurbished in Dalian, Liaoning Province, and rechristened the Liaoning. 

The ship was commissioned in 2012.
Chinese media outlets reported on the Liaoning's training exercises with great fanfare. 

But the carrier is still at the stage of conducting takeoff and landing drills and making trial voyages.
Including a new vessel to be commissioned in the near future, the U.S. possesses a total of 11 aircraft carriers. 

Obviously, China's carrier fleet would not be able to take on a U.S. carrier battle group.
Defense officials from many countries agree that the Chinese carrier is still just just for show -- a "paper tiger," a term often used by Mao Zedong, the revolutionary leader who led China to communism.
Before China acquired its nuclear weapons capability, Mao resorted to bluster. 

He called such weapons possessed by the U.S. and other countries "a paper tiger."
But ordinary Chinese people cannot easily understand the huge gap in military capabilities between their country and the U.S. 

That is why the barrage of propaganda reports by domestic media outlets can be highly effective.
China has made strenuous efforts recently to build an aircraft carrier on its own.
A Chinese company claiming to be private also purchased the retired ex-Soviet aircraft carrier Kiev. The Chinese military studied the ship's construction, and it is now open to the public at a theme park in Tianjin, China.
China also acquired another retired ex-Soviet carrier, the Minsk, for study through a South Korean company. 

After being scrutinized, the Minsk was also opened to the public in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province.
China is now building two homegrown aircraft carriers, with one of them, China's second carrier after the Liaoning, expected to be launched in the near future.
If the second Chinese aircraft carrier forms a battle group and starts operating in the Western Pacific and the South China Sea in a few years' time, the security situation in the region could change as the gap in U.S. and Chinese military capabilities will narrow gradually.

Economic tensions
Tensions between China and the U.S. are rising on the economic front as well.
Trump has harshly condemned China for racking up trade surpluses with the U.S. through unfair practices such as manipulating its currency, the yuan. 

He has also vowed to give top priority to protecting American jobs.
In response to Trump's anti-China rhetoric and "America First" policy, Chinese private companies have started talking about expanding their investments in the U.S.
The move comes despite the Chinese government's desperate bid to resolve the problem of serious capital outflow.
Trump's "America First" policy is giving Chinese companies a convenient excuse to legally transfer funds out of their country to boost their holdings of safer dollar-denominated assets.
Chinese authorities have repeatedly conducted large-scale market interventions to stem the yuan's plunge amid the capital outflow.
As a result, the country's foreign exchange reserves shrank sharply to just over $3 trillion at the end of December 2016, compared with a record high of nearly $4 trillion registered at the end of June 2014.
At the beginning of this year, Chinese authorities imposed stricter controls on foreign currency exchanges, marking the latest in a series of steps to tackle the serious capital outflow problem.
In China, individuals are allowed to convert up to $50,000 worth of yuan into foreign currency a year.
Under the new regulation, they must effectively pledge not to use the money to purchase houses, securities, life insurance and some other products abroad when they submit applications to major banks.
The number of Chinese tourists visiting Japan has been rising in recent years. 

They will also have to comply with the new regulation. 

Some wealthy Chinese people have been on a property-purchase spree in Japan. 

But the new regulation will also likely put a damper on their spending.
Meanwhile, China's foreign direct investment is also slowing down sharply. 

Such investment tumbled about 40% in December 2016 on a year-on-year basis in terms of value, apparently as a result of Chinese authorities' guidance.

Sensitive year
With tensions running high between China and the U.S. both militarily and economically, Xi's regime needs to be vigilant against a possible surge in anti-U.S. feelings at home.
In a move that broke with long-standing U.S. diplomatic protocol and angered Beijing, President Trump spoke by telephone with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party on Dec. 2, 2016.
Beijing still regards Taiwan as a renegade province that must be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary, and has pressured the Taiwanese leader to acknowledge the "One China" principle.
Trump has also repeatedly expressed doubts about the "One China" principle, which the U.S. has upheld for many years.
If the situation remains unchanged, a campaign to boycott American products or anti-U.S. demonstrations could take place in mainland China. 

Xi wants to prevent any such incidents that could lead to social instability as he prepares for a crucial political event.
If history is any guide, Xi has good reason to tread carefully. 

When a U.S. military plane mistakenly bombed the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia in 1999, killing three Chinese, large-scale demonstrations were held by angry Chinese protesters in Beijing.
This year is also politically sensitive. 

The Chinese Communist Party is to hold its next five-yearly national congress this autumn. 

A tug-of-war within the ruling party is expected to further intensify over the lineup of a new leadership team to be chosen there.
The Trump administration will probably try to unsettle the Xi regime in various ways.
Under such circumstances, the Xi regime needs to reassure the public. 

That is why it has made the most use of the Liaoning. 

The first and only Chinese aircraft carrier is a treasured military asset of the Xi regime, although it is in reality just a paper tiger.