On 23 January, the PLA launched aggressive flight activities over Taiwanese airspace, featuring ’13 sorties’ of military crafts, including eight sorties of H-6K Bombers, four sorties of J-16 Combat Aircraft, and one Y-8 Anti-Submarine Warfare plane – which was a ‘direct warning’ to the new leadership at the Oval office from supporting Taipei
@Kunal_Chonkar
New Delhi: Chinese foreign affairs expert and defense researcher Su Xiaohu, affirmed that the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) brazen act to send 13 military flights in the southwest airspace of Taiwan on 23 January was a move to deter the new US administration under President Joe Biden from backing Taipei. She remarked that despite Taiwan’s attempt to garner attention from the world, especially Washington, on the Taiwan Strait situation, the PLA will follow ‘its own pace’ working on the ‘plan devised’ to hold ‘flight activities’ around the island nation of Taiwan.
According to reports on 23 January, the PLA launched ’13 sorties’ within the space of two hours, with military flights used in combat operations piercing the airspace of Taiwan. This included eight sorties of H-6K Bombers, four sorties of J-16 Combat Aircraft, and one Y-8 Anti-Submarine Warfare plane. With the flight shattering the skies above the Taiwan Strait, Beijing appeared to deliver hostile messages to Taipei. The aggressive flight operations carried out on that day was the 20th Chinese air incursion in less than a month, near Taiwan.
Speaking to Chinese media, soon after the PLA’s flight operations, Su attacked the Taiwanese media for ‘triggering panic’ in the island nation population. “The Taiwanese side performing this counting of Chinese airplanes has become the norm. The more they count, the more panicked, they become. The more they count, the more terrified, they become. However, right now by revealing this sort of information, they (Taiwanese) are hoping to further get the attention of the United States on the Taiwan Strait situation,” Su claimed.
Defending the actions of the PLA, Su, who is the Deputy Director, Department of International and Strategic Studies, China Institute of International Studies directed that ‘regardless of how much the Taiwanese side does, Beijing will do what they want to do, what must be done.’ “No matter how much terror is expressed by the Taiwanese-side, we (China) will continue to deter the Taiwan independence forces, which is the need. Our (China) objectives and planning of our relevant actions in this subject are according to prepared plans,” Su said while adding that at the same time, the PLA, under President Xi Jinping will gradually achieve ‘mission objectives’ on their own ‘set pace.’
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Su, who in her statement given to a Chinese media, had hoped for the US and China to ‘get a new start,’ deciphered that the PLA’s flight operations of 23 January, were a ‘direct message’ to the new administration in Washington. She asserted that during the last few months of the Trump-administration, the US frequently played and raised the Taiwan card, in the military realm creating so-called pressure in the Taiwan Strait. “This invigorated the Taiwan independence forces, making them more excited. These actions of the US-side created an extremely bad influence,” she said.
A PLA loyalist and defender of Beijing’s diplomacy, Su cautioned that this time, the action of the Chinese military is also a ‘warning’ to the US. “If you play with fire, the end result will be that you burn yourself. Therefore, after the new administration has taken control of the Oval Office, they must now decide as to how to handle the situation in the Taiwan Strait area. What ‘adjustments’ must be made in the US-Taiwan relations, whether or not to further cheer on Taiwan independence forces, or even to give them more benefits, resulting in more instability to the Taiwan Strait. This inevitably will be a practical issue that the Biden administration must consider,” Su intimated.
US-China Ties To Cause ‘Cold Peace’ Between Beijing-Taipei
While, the world continues to watch the unfolding of Washington’s approach towards Beijing under the new leadership at the White House, Zhang Wensheng, the Deputy Director of the Taiwan Research Institute at Xiamen University, pointed out that ‘if the China-US relations ease, then the cross-strait situation will be in a relatively stable state of cold peace.’
Zhang said that China has ‘achieved many accomplishments’ in cross-strait relations over the past five years – promoted economic exchanges, maintained peace and stability, and curbed the voice of ‘Taiwan independence.’
“It is impossible for (President) Tsai Ing-wen to recognize the 1992 Consensus, China has ‘no hope’ with her. Thus, an understanding between President Biden and President Xi will commence a ‘cold peace’ between Beijing and Taipei,” Zhang said while adding that the political confrontation between the ROC and PRC is unlikely to have any room for easing in the next four years.
