MICHAEL SNYDER/
Are we in danger of stumbling into a major military conflict? This week, a couple of startling revelations have really shaken up those that closely watch U.S. relations with China.
The relationship between our two nations continues to deteriorate, and we are now closer to a war with China than we have ever been since the end of the Korean War.
In fact, if you put together a list of all the issues that the American people are concerned about, war with China would probably not even make the top 1000.
Here in the United States, it is pretty much a non-issue, because the vast majority of the population does not think that such a war will ever happen in their entire lifetimes.
But over in China they see things very differently. In fact, state-controlled media outlets openly talk about an invasion of Taiwan and a future military conflict with the United States.
To the Chinese, reunification with Taiwan is a top national priority, and the U.S. military is the only thing standing in the way of achieving that extremely important goal.
In recent years, the U.S. military has conducted "freedom of navigation" exercises in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a "show of strength" to China.
In response, the Chinese Navy is now conducting "freedom of navigation" exercises off the coast of Alaska. The following comes from Zero Hedge...
The US Coast Guard revealed a significant incident involving Chinese military vessels coming near American waters off Alaska. While the incident was first divulged to the public on Monday, it happened at the end of August.
No less than four People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy ships were spotted and shadowed by US vessels off Alaska's Aleutian Islands, including a guided missile destroyer and guided missile cruiser, as well as an intelligence gathering vessel and auxiliary ship. They stayed in international waters but came within the United States' exclusive economic zone.
Needless to say, this is extremely unusual.
According to a Coast Guard news release, Chinese vessels actually came as close as 46 miles to U.S. territory...
During the deployment, Bertholf and Kimball observed four ships from the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) operating as close as 46 miles off the Aleutian Island coast. While the ships were within the U.S. exclusive economic zone, they followed international laws and norms and at no point entered U.S. territorial waters.
The PLAN task force included a guided missile cruiser, a guided missile destroyer, a general intelligence vessel, and an auxiliary vessel. The Chinese vessels conducted military and surveillance operations during their deployment to the Bering Sea and North Pacific Ocean.
This "intrusion" made a lot of people angry, but the truth is that the Chinese are only doing this because of what we have been doing to them for several years.
We were promised that relations with China would improve once Biden was in the White House, but instead things have just gotten even more tense. The Biden administration has been very aggressive with China regarding the status of Taiwan, and the Chinese have responded by sending lots and lots of military aircraft into Taiwanese airspace.
This week, a newspaper controlled by the CCP published a piece that suggested that now is the time to send Chinese fighter jets directly over Taiwan...
Sending PLA fighter jets over the island of Taiwan is a step we must take. The move will pose a fundamental warning to the Taiwan authorities and bring about reconstruction of the situation across the Taiwan Straits. It will be a clear declaration of China's sovereignty over Taiwan island, and create unprecedented conditions for us to further implement this sovereignty.
The "airspace" over the Taiwan island belongs to the airspace of China. The so-called middle line of the Taiwan Straits has never been recognized by the Chinese mainland. Therefore, there is sufficient legal basis for the PLA fighter jets to fly over the island. Previously, PLA fighter jets did not fly over Taiwan. That was out of consideration for taking care of the emotions and feelings of Taiwan residents and out of the goodwill to maintain stability across the Straits.
Of course if Chinese military aircraft fly over the island, there is a really good chance that the Taiwanese military will start shooting at them.
The same piece that I just quoted above suggested that such an action by the Taiwanese military could be the start of "a war to liberate the Taiwan island"...
The mainland fighter jets' flight over the Taiwan island must be backed by large-scale and overwhelming military preparedness. Fighters flying over the Taiwan Straits is only a part of the Chinese mainland's determination to reset the situation across the Straits.
This will be a showdown that gives the DPP authority two choices: either accept the patrol and refrain from the extreme anti-mainland line of colluding with the US and Japan, or start a war by firing at military aircraft of the Chinese mainland and face the consequence of being destroyed and eliminated by the PLA.
If China did invade Taiwan, that would instantly put the United States and China into a state of military conflict.
And the war that most Americans thought could never happen will have begun.
We are so close.
All it will take is one false move and there will be no turning back.
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