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US-China relations: military tensions continue to rise over Taiwan
- All three sides flex their military muscle in South China Sea, Taiwan Strait this week
- Military commentator says presence of warplanes and warships in region now the norm
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Warplanes from the Chinese mainland, Taiwan and the United States gathered southwest of Taiwan at the same time this week as a US warship transited nearby, adding more tension to the region.
The encounter started on Wednesday morning when a US Air Force EP-3E spy plane conducted a two-hour surveillance flight in an area where the Taiwan Strait meets the South China Sea. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force responded by scrambling jets to monitor the situation, while Taiwan dispatched patrol aircraft and put its air-defence missile crews on standby, Taiwanese media reported.
PLA aircraft have been flying over the region, which Taiwan regards as its air defence identification zone (ADIZ), on an almost daily basis in recent months, but the involvement of a US warplane was more unusual.
Also on Wednesday, the US Navy’s guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain travelled through the stretch of water that separates the Chinese mainland from Taiwan. It was the fourth such transit by a US warship since Joe Biden became US president.
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On Monday, the PLA’s Liaoning aircraft carrier strike group carried out exercises off the east coast of Taiwan, and on Tuesday, the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group entered the South China Sea as part of what the US Navy called its “routine operations”.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian denied accusations by US State Department spokesman Ned Price that China was intimidating Taiwan, while the island’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said that in the event of a war Taiwan would “fight to the end”, as he announced an increase in military spending.
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“We have, of course, taken note with great concern the pattern of ongoing PRC efforts and attempts to intimidate in the region, including in the context of Taiwan,” Price said.
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