Build-Up To War In The South China Sea

Danger in the South China Sea

Ann Wright

Over the past two years, the United States has dramatically increased the number of U.S. Navy aircraft carriers and destroyers sent into the South China Sea as freedom-of-navigation show-of- force missions to remind the Chinese government that the U.S. considers the Western Pacific and the South China Sea as a part of the oceans of America and its allies.  

Additionally, in 2020, the Trump administration ratcheted up tensions with China by sending to Taiwan the highest-ranking U.S. officials in over 40 years. The Chinese government has responded with the largest naval exercises in its history and sending flights of 18 aircraft to the edge of Taiwan’s air defense zone.

To the anger of the Chinese government, the Trump administration has increased contact with Taiwan in a variety of ways. After the 2016 election, President Donald Trump spoke by phone with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in what is believed to be the first time a U.S. president or president-elect has spoken directly with a Taiwanese leader since at least 1979.

Additionally, over the past two months, the United States has ramped up its confrontation with China by high-level official visits to Taiwan. For the first time in more than four decades, a cabinet-level U.S. official visited Taiwan when Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar went to Taiwan in August 2020, a visit that some consider a Trump administration’s jab at China for not being forthcoming with information on the Corona virus.

Most recently, on Sept. 17, Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs Keith Krach visited Taiwan for a three-day visit, the most senior State Department official to go to Taiwan in four decades.

In response to Under-Secretary of State Krach’s visit, on Sept. 18, the Chinese government flew 18 military aircraft to the edge of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone.  

One day later on Sept. 19, the Chinese government sent a 19 aircraft armada consisting of  12 J-16 fighters, two J-10 fighters, two J-11 fighters, two H-6 bombers and one Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft with some crossing the Taiwan Strait midline and others flying into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone off its southwest coast.  Taiwan government scrambled F-16 fighters and deployed its air defense missile system.

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