1y ago

China testing ability to ‘seize power’ in second day of military drills around Taiwan

www.theguardian.com

China has begun its second day of military drills targeting Taiwan, in what it says is punishment for “separatist acts” after the inauguration of its new president on Monday.

The exercises, which involve Chinese military units from the air force, rocket force, navy, army, and coast guard, were announced suddenly on Thursday morning, with maps showing five approximate target areas in the sea surrounding Taiwan’s main island. Other areas also targeted Taiwan’s offshore islands, which are close to the Chinese mainland.

China’s defence ministry said the drills on Friday were testing its military’s ability to “seize power” and occupy key areas, in line with Beijing’s ultimate goal of annexing Taiwan. Taiwan’s government and people reject the prospect of Chinese rule, but China’s ruler Xi Jinping has not renounced the use of force to take the island. Western intelligence has claimed Xi has told the People’s Liberation Army to be capable of an invasion by 2027.

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I think the weakness shown around Ukraine is now having the opposite effect that the early strong support and western democratic unity had at the start of the war, the CCP senses there's blood in the water.
- Yep 100% Xi is smarter than Putin. He knew he needed to wait and see.
  
  I'm not so sure he's smarter. I think he believes he has more time than Putin believes he has. And he's probably right about that.
- Add the shadow of another Trump presidency and they're motivated
- Uh huh, remind me; who is threatening to invade who?
Add it to the list. Although I think these drills are more about Xi seizing his own appendage than seizing power.
- They all trying to help him find it?
The Neo Axis powers: China, Russia and Isreal
- Ah, yes, Israel's lifelong supporter: China.
  
  Just because they are on the same side doesn't necessarily make them allies. The enemy of my enemy is my friend...for now
- The Neo Axis powers: China, Russia
  Makes sense
  and Isreal
  wut
  
  Israel is in the middle of throwing a hissy fit because western populations don't like what we're seeing done to Palestine. As soon as we take our weapons away from them they'll switch to Russian and Chinese systems and Russia is already two feet into round 2 of an attempted genocide of Ukrainians, specifically Crimean Tatars and other historic groups with stronger ties to Kievan Rus than the muscovites.
- none of these countries are particularly warm with each other.
- Unfortunately Israel is on the allied side. Bombs made in America blowing up little kids. It feels like we're all evil these days.
  
  Who said America would be on the allied side?
The ministry said China sent 19 warships around Taiwan’s perimeter, 16 marine police vessels and 49 warplanes, of which 35 crossed the median line, the de facto border between China and Taiwan.
Lol, that's it? Taiwan is bigger in area than 9 US states and has 24 million people. It's taken China more than 19 warships and 49 planes to conquer uninhibited islands.
- Would you really expect them to show their full force in a preparatory exercise? Why would they do that?
  
  To scare Taiwan into capitulating without firing a shot. "Speak softly and carry a big stick." China is not going to invade Taiwan. They literally can't risk damaging anything on the island. They need the people there to accept them willingly.
  China is not as dumb as Russia. Their leaders are venal and power hungry, but not stupid. They know the thing that keeps them in power is economic growth. If they don't have that, they can't control their population. An invasion of Taiwan would put racheting sanctions on their economy, slowly strangling it.
- Playing Devil's advocate there, but there are probably three reasons: it's expenaive, they want their best hand picked men and vessels to rattle the sabble without potential fuck ups, they need to toy the line between acting too small and too big so they are scary but no one thinks they are here for real and other countries should get involved.
  
  They want to test their defensive response
- They didn't conquer anything yet, they're flexing.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
China has begun its second day of military drills targeting Taiwan, in what it says is punishment for “separatist acts” after the inauguration of its new president on Monday.
China’s defence ministry said the drills on Friday were testing its military’s ability to “seize power” and occupy key areas, in line with Beijing’s ultimate goal of annexing Taiwan.
Taiwan’s government and people reject the prospect of Chinese rule, but China’s ruler Xi Jinping has not renounced the use of force to take the island.
Beijing did not declare any no-fly zones, and no live fire was used except in practice areas on the Chinese mainland, according to Taiwan’s military.
In response, Taiwan scrambled jets, put its forces on alert, and moved anti-ship missile systems to coastal areas.
China’s official state news agency Xinhua said on Friday the drills were “legitimate, timely and entirely necessary, as ‘Taiwan independence’ acts in any form cannot be tolerated”.
The original article contains 523 words, the summary contains 154 words. Saved 71%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Flag waving and boot stomping. It's effective.
Tit-for-tat, innit?
Not a coincidence that the Filipino-American Balikatan military exercise this year simulated invading Taiwan... or that exercises ended on May 10th (taking place in the Batanes, 218km from Taiwan)... Or that they were the largest such exercises since 1991.
Not a coincidence that the Korean-American "Freedom Shield" military exercise was more than double the scale of last year's.
Also not a coincidence that Lai very conspicuously claimed that the PRC is an independent country, violating the ROC's Constitution and breaking the 1992 Consensus that is de facto upheld by the KMT and supported by the TPP immediately after agreeing to uphold said constitution...
While Lai holds the executive seat, his opposition dominates the legislature. Coincidentally, Taiwan is currently seeing mass protests against a bill that would shift power away from the executive to better match other democracies worldwide (this is the same bill that, notoriously, DPP lawmakers tried to steal from the Yuan to avoid getting it passed).
The DPP is a party that does not want Taiwan to stay Taiwan. It wants to ignore Taiwan's roots, it wants to ignore the history, the culture, and the economy. It does not want to uphold democratic ideals and instead prefers consolidated power within the executive... And, of course, this is even as KMT sympathizers hold a stranglehold over the upper echelons of Taiwan's military.

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