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Opinion

China Plans to 'Encircle' Taiwan with Military Drills

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Just hours after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi touched down in Taipei, (embarrassing China immensely in the process), Beijing has announced a rather drastic attempt to save face.

Taiwan is not recognized as an independent nation by China, meaning that Pelosi’s trip to the capital of the island country runs counter to Beijing’s belief system and, in the run-up to the visit, the CCP had suggested that they may even shoot her plane out of the sky before it can land.

This did not happen, of course, but China is now planning for some sort of military response.

China will conduct large-scale military drills and missile tests around Taiwan in a defiant show of force after House speaker Nancy Pelosi became the highest-ranking US politician to land on the island in a quarter century.

Beijing announced six exclusion zones encircling Taiwan to facilitate live-fire military drills from Thursday to Sunday, with some of the areas crossing into the island’s territorial waters. The size and scope of the areas could set the stage for the Chinese military’s most provocative actions near Taiwan in decades.

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Separately, the People’s Liberation Army said exercises could start as soon as Tuesday, leaving open the possibility of military activities around Taiwan while Pelosi was visiting. The operations include “long-range live firing in the Taiwan Strait” and “regular-guided fire testing in the eastern waters” off Taiwan from Tuesday evening, the PLA said.

Chinese officials were talking tough.

“This action is targeted at the US’s shocking recent major escalation on the Taiwan issue, and serves as a serious warning to Taiwanese independence forces or those seeking independence,” Shi Yi, a spokesperson for the Eastern Theater Command, said in a statement.

And while there is little chance that China could use their military to directly provoke the United States, these exclusion zones could wreak havoc on international trade corridors in the region and creating ever more international stress.

 

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About the Author:
As a lifelong advocate for the dream promised us in the Constitution, Andrew West has spent his years authoring lush prose editorial dirges regarding America's fall from grace and her path back to prosperity. When West isn't railing against the offensive whims of the mainstream media or the ideological cruelty that is so rampant in the US, he spends his time seeking adventurous new food and fermented beverages, with the occasional round of golf peppered in.




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