Based on recent satellite imagery, the Chinese military is training missile strikes on mock ships and targets similar to those operated by Taiwanese and US military forces on Taiwan and US territory on Guam, respectively. South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on Thursday.
“According to recent satellite images, the Chinese military has improved anti-ship missile training from hitting large carrier-sized targets to smaller ships and naval bases,” a Hong Kong newspaper reported on May 12.
“They show the training base [China’s western region of] The remote Taklamakan desert in Xinjiang, a mock ship moored at a base-like naval base in northeast Taiwan, and other targets in Guam. SCMP In detail about the Taipei maritime expert’s analysis.
The website of the nonprofit United States Naval Institute (USNI) reported the satellite imagery on May 11 and said it has studied the photos and determined that the Chinese military is most likely improving its capabilities to destroy ships for possible future conflicts with new targets. . . ” in the far desert. ”
Based on the most recent satellite imagery of the Takla Makan Desert, the USNI said: “Targets emerged and created a series of broad target ranges along the eastern edge of the desert. … Some are marine, both have models that look like models of ships in the harbor.”
“The nature, location, and attacks in these areas indicate that the targets were designed for ballistic missile testing,” the USNI said.
Recently, the Chinese military has intensified military exercises and activities designed to intimidate neighboring Taiwan. The independent island nation is claimed by Beijing in part because of its strategic location at the crossroads of the East China and South China Seas. The ruling Communist Party of China has promised to “reunify” Taiwan, located near China’s southeast coast, with “the mainland” or China, under repeated threats over the past few years. This belligerent rhetoric has laid the groundwork for an intensification of the tactics the Chinese military has been using to persecute Taiwan over the past few months. As part of this intimidation campaign, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force conducts almost daily air sorties to infiltrate the Taiwan Air Defense Identification Area (ADIZ), and most recently sent a vehicle to a sensitive area in Chinese military airspace on May 11. . domain.
While the US government does not maintain official diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Washington maintains informal relations with the democratically elected government of Taipei. The US Navy frequently orders its ships to cross the Taiwan Strait, which separates Taiwan from China, in solidarity with the small but politically and economically important island nation.
In this photo file provided by the U.S. Coast Guard on August 27, 2021, the U.S. Coast Guard’s Legend-class National Guard Boat Munro (WMSL 755) crosses the Taiwan Strait while in regular transit with the Arleigh Burke-class missile destroyer USS. Kidd (DDG). one hundred). The United States and China are intensifying their verbal wars with Taiwan over a longstanding dispute that has profound implications for power dynamics in the Indo-Pacific and beyond. (US Coast Guard via AP, file)
Source: Breitbart
