China’s Military Surrounds Taiwan After Trump Comments

China’s Military Surrounds Taiwan After Trump Comments

Stefan J. Bos,

China staged massive war games near Taiwan Tuesday, just weeks after U.S. President Donald J. Trump declined to commit military support for the territory.

Beijing said Tuesday the drills of Taiwan’s north, south, and east coasts are a “stern warning” against separatism and called Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te a “parasite.”

In response, Taiwan sent warships to China’s navy approaching its shores, several sources said.

Unlike the war games last year, China did not formally name the exercises, which are happening after a rise in Chinese rhetoric against Lai.

At least one former Taiwanese government minister suggested China may feel emboldened by Trump’s refusal comment in response to a question about whether the U.S. would ever allow China to take control of Taiwan by force.

“I never comment on that,” Trump said at the White House on February 26. “I don’t want to ever put myself in that position.”

Trump spoke during a Cabinet meeting in response to a reporter’s question about whether it was his policy that China would never take Taiwan by force while he is president. His predecessor, Joe Biden, took a different approach, saying U.S. forces would defend Taiwan if China were to attack.

And having watched Trump’s refusal to give Ukraine security guarantees to help end its war with invading Russia, China may feel the time is right to invade Taiwan.

Yingtai Lung, a former culture minister of Taiwan, noticed that “President Trump pulled back on America’s strong support for Ukraine and added insult to injury by humiliating its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at the White House in late February. Now people in Taiwan are wondering: If the United States could do that to Ukraine to cozy up to Russia, will it do the same to us to cozy up to China?”

For decades, she added, “Taiwan’s leaders have framed our standoff with China — which claims Taiwan as its own territory and vows to take it, by force if necessary — as a defense of freedom and democracy, underpinned by the expectation that the United States would back us up if China were to invade.”

However, the ex-minister added, “This created a false sense of security, allowing Taiwan’s politicians and people to delay a national reckoning over the best way for us to deal with China in order to ensure the long-term survival of our democracy.”

Yet with “Mr. Trump casting aside democratic values and America’s friends, Taiwan must begin an immediate, serious national conversation about how to secure peace with China on terms that are acceptable to us, rather than letting bigger powers decide our future.”

Lung commented in a Tuesday opinion guest essay in The New York Times newspaper titled: “The Clock is Ticking for Taiwan.”

However, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth repeatedly criticized Beijing during his recent Asia visit, describing Japan on Sunday as indispensable for tackling Chinese aggression.

He stressed that Japan was crucial in implementing a plan to upgrade the U.S. military command in the country. “We share a warrior ethos that defines our forces,” Hegseth told Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani at a meeting in Tokyo.

“Japan is our indispensable partner in deterring communist Chinese military aggression,” including across the Taiwan Strait, he added.

Yet on Tuesday, it was China calling the shots, sending its army, navy, air, and rocket forces to surround Taiwan in a move aimed at practicing a blockade of the self-ruled island.

Taiwan’s government condemned the drills, with the presidential office saying China was “widely recognized by the international community as a troublemaker” and that the government has the confidence and ability to defend itself.

Taiwan officials said over 10 Chinese military ships had approached close to Taiwan’s 24 nautical miles (44 kilometers) contiguous zone, and Taiwan sent its warships to respond.

China views Taiwan as its territory and has not ruled out annexing the self-ruled island by force. Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only the Taiwanese people can decide their future.