The US and the island of Taiwan have recently been engaged in a war of public opinion over tensions across the Taiwan Straits. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday the US is concerned about “China’s aggressive actions against Taiwan” and alleged that “it would be a serious mistake for anyone to try to change that status quo [in the Western Pacific] by force.” However, asked if the US would respond militarily to the Chinese mainland’s actions against the island of Taiwan, Blinken declined to comment on a hypothetical. On the same day, the US Navy released a photo in which the commanding officer and executive officer of the USS Mustin destroyer can be seen watching on as China’s aircraft carrier Liaoning sails thousands of meters away. The captain has his feet up in a decidedly nonchalant pose as the pair watch on. Media from Taiwan emphasized the pose shows the US doesn’t take the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) seriously, reflecting some people in Taiwan placing strong hope on the US. The military of Taiwan and local media jointly staged a “leak incident” recently. The local-run Youth Daily News published photos of a secretive truck-mounted radar system for detecting the PLA’s J-20 stealth fighters, in an attempt to use intelligence warfare to convince the Chinese mainland that the island is capable of dealing with the J-20 aircraft. According to local media, defense officials of Taiwan revealed that the “airspace” over Taiwan is divided into three zones: surveillance, warning and destruction. The “airspace” overlying the waters at 30 nautical miles is the “red line” that prevents the PLA’s aircraft from approaching, and they can fire at the PLA’s aircraft that have entered the destruction zone. For one thing, there is no way for the Chinese mainland to accept Blinken’s “warning.” The status quo across the Taiwan Straits has already been broken by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) after it came to office in 2016. They abandoned the one-China consensus and pushed the cross-Straits situation into turmoil. From the Trump administration to the Biden administration, the US has connived with the risky policy of the DPP authority, and constantly broke the original “one China” policy system and changed the status quo across the Straits. China’s adherence to the one-China principle is a countermeasure to the disruption of the status quo in the Taiwan Straits. China has the Anti-Secession Law, which demands the use of force to address serious moves of secession. To be sure, if the DPP authorities continue the salami-slicing tactics in a bid to split the country with the connivance of the US, then the Chinese mainland will pile more military pressure on the island. If the US continues to send the wrong signal to the DPP authorities and embolden them to engage in reckless moves, a war across the Straits is destined to break out sooner or later.
–The Daily Mail-Global Times News Exchange Item
