The Chinese military has deployed its “strongest firefighters” to conduct exercises near Taiwan on Wednesday, 48 hours before US President Joe Biden begins Friday’s six-day tour of East Asia with defiant observers to Washington. State Administration of China, Sovereignty of Taipei Global Times It was reported on Thursday.
The newspaper reported that on May 18, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) navy sent its “strongest firefighters” to conduct exercises in the Western Pacific Ocean. The fighters joined the PLA’s Liaoning Carrier Group, which has been training in the area almost daily since May 2.
“Two Chinese H-6 military bombers entered the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday after taking off from the East China Sea and flying between Okinawa and the Miyakojima River. Firefighters rolled the area back to the same trajectory,” he said. Global Times This was reported by the Joint Headquarters of the Ministry of Defense of Japan.
Okinawa and Miyakojima are islands in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture, the country’s southernmost and westernmost prefecture. Miyakojima is about 284 miles east of Taiwan and about 129 miles east of Japan’s Senkaku archipelago, both claimed by China. The uninhabited Senkaku islands in Japan are part of Okinawa Prefecture.
For years, Chinese ships have regularly breached the waters just around Senkaku, which the Chinese call Diaoyu, for years, especially in recent weeks. The same applies to China’s hostility towards neighboring Taiwan, which is subjected to combat sorties almost daily from Chinese aircraft violating the air defense identification zone (ADZ).
On May 10, Japanese Defense Minister Kishi Nobuo described China’s six-day military operation from May 2 to 8 outside of Ishigaki Island (part of Okinawa Prefecture) as “the closest to Japan to date”. Kishi also said that Chinese fighter jets and helicopters performed “more than 100 takeoffs and landings” from Liaoning aircraft carriers in about a week’s worth of exercise.
PLAN placed the aircraft carrier Liaoning in strategic waters approximately 99 miles south of Ishigaki Island for the 18th consecutive day at Friday’s press time. Ishigaki Island is located approximately 200 miles east of Taiwan. While the United States is not an official diplomatic ally of Taiwan, it provides unofficial support to the sovereign island nation. The US Navy occasionally sends ships into the Taiwan Strait, which separates Taiwan from China, in solidarity with Taipei.
Biden arrived in Seoul, South Korea on May 20 as part of a six-day tour of East Asia, which was planned to include a visit to Japan. The American leader is expected to lead talks between his South Korean and Japanese counterparts that will encourage the countries to work with Washington to counter China’s growing presence in the western Pacific.
Chinese Communist Party Global Times May 19 provided the following analysis of a message Beijing is likely to send to the United States by starting military exercises near Taiwan near Biden’s arrival in East Asia:
Analysts believe the large Liaoning carrier group is training at this strategically important location east of the island of Taiwan and south of Japan. […] Analysts said they were sending a stern warning to Taiwanese separatists and foreign intervention forces at a time when reports suggested that Japan and the United States aimed to confirm increased cooperation on Taiwan and compare it to the Ukraine crisis. . .
Beijing considers Taiwan a province of China and has pledged in recent months to “reunify” the island nation with China.
Source: Breitbart
