Expert urges U.S. to boost military presence around Taiwan to deter China
ROC Central News Agency
07/02/2023 12:57 PM
Taipei, July 2 (CNA) A Taiwanese defense scholar has called on the United States to increase its military presence around Taiwan to deter Chinese military forces from entering Taiwan's territorial space, which he said could ultimately lead to a cross-Strait war.
Huang Chung-ting (黃宗鼎), an associate research fellow at the government-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR), made the call in an article published on the INDSR website on June 30.
Over the past decade, China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) has been extending its reach toward the Taiwan side of the Strait, then moving east of Taiwan, beyond the First Island Chain, Huang said in the article titled "How to avoid war? U.S. military needs to form new norms across the Taiwan Strait."
PLA warships first crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait in 2014, and by 2016 China began deploying warships around the island and sending planes close to Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ), Huang said.
From 2020 into 2021, the PLA started to ignore the existence of Taiwan's ADIZ by routinely sending military assets into Taiwan's southwestern and southeastern ADIZs, he said.
In 2022, the PLA moved to conducting drills and engaging in other military provocations around Taiwan and its outlying islands, in an attempt to constrict Taiwan military's response in the event of a Chinese invasion, Huang said.
The most recent incursions this year by the PLA mean that it is just a matter of time before its forces enter Taiwan's 24-nautical mile contiguous zone then the country's 12-nautical mile territorial space, he said.
According to Taiwan's military, eight PLA aircraft breached the median line of the Taiwan Strait on June 22 and 23, approaching the outer boundary of the contiguous zone, which is 24 nautical miles (44.4 kilometers) from Taiwan's coastline.
While PLA planes and ships have frequently come near Taiwan, and Chinese aircraft have occasionally crossed the median line, they rarely approach the contiguous zone, which is about 44 nautical miles east of the median line.
The last time PLA warplanes were spotted near the contiguous zone was Dec. 31 into Jan. 1, when they came within 24 nautical miles of Taiwan's coastline.
Huang said that if the PLA decides to enter Taiwan's territorial space, the Taiwan military would be forced to take defensive action against the Chinese warships and warplanes, which would inevitably lead to a cross-Strait war.
As Chinese military forces continue to expand eastward, Huang said, they would no longer be deterred by regular U.S. patrols and American arms sales to Taiwan.
The only way to stop China from altering the cross-Strait status quo is for the U.S. to significantly increase it military presence around Taiwan -- both air and sea - to counterbalance the PLA's increasing military coercion in the region, Huang said.
The median line of the Taiwan Strait is an unofficial border between Taiwan and China that had been tacitly observed by both sides from the 1950s until last year, when Beijing became enraged by then U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taipei.
An ADIZ is an area declared by a country to allow it to identify, locate and control approaching foreign aircraft, but it is not part of the territorial airspace as defined by international law.
(By Novia Huang and Joseph Yeh)
Enditem/pc
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