Military unification of Taiwan is an elusive dream | Lui Yue
On Aug. 31, Hu Xijin from Global Times published an editorial “Tsai authorities deserve a stern warning from Beijing.” It wrote, China “spotted the abnormal path of a US Navy EP-3E reconnaissance aircraft, which was suspected of taking off from Taiwan island” and “if the mainland has conclusive evidence, it can destroy the relevant airport in the island and the US military aircraft that land there — a war in the Taiwan Straits will thus begin.” How brave it was for Hu, after his previous bold comment “China needs to increase its nuclear warheads to 1,000,” to give command on behalf of the Chairman of the CCP’s Central Military Commission.
It all started when the CCP military announced they would hold concentrated military drills in the Yellow Sea and the South China Sea on Aug. 24 to Aug. 29 to “sandwich the island of Taiwan from both the north and south ends.” Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post quoted from a source close to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) that, the PLA has launched a DF-26B ballistic missile from Qinghai and a DF-21D ballistic missile from Zhejiang in the morning of Aug. 26, and both hit the intended target in the South China Sea.
Mark Esper, the US Secretary of Defense, said when boarding the US assault ship, that they cannot lose any land in the Pacific Ocean and that the US military “can fight and beat them anytime, anywhere.”
On Aug. 27, Bloomberg US published information revealed by the US military that the Chinese military has launched four missiles, but neither China nor the US have mentioned the whereabouts of the other two missiles. However, a leak from Twitter said that one missile has landed in Guangxi, along with a photo of the broken missile. Moreover, Changjiang township in Donglan County, Guangxi has issued an urgent notice on Aug. 25 and asked all residents and shops to evacuate before 7 a.m. on Aug. 26.
Immediately after the launch of missiles, the US reconnaissance aircraft RC135S flew to the targeted area in South China Sea, at the same time the U.S. anti-missile cruiser has also arrived at the sea area where the test launch took place. DF-21D is also known as “carrier killer”; DF-26B is a dual-capable, medium-long range ballistic missile which is also called “Guam express.” In 2016, DF-21D test-fired and has sunk the target ship Zhenjiang; in 2018, the CCP issued photos of two DF-21D test-fired and hit two key points which used two US aircraft carriers as target. This time it was the first time DF-26B being tested with live ammunition. On Jul. 31, Xi attended a ceremony to mark the launch of the BeiDou-3 Navigation Satellite System. The U.S. has not only obtained all the parameters of the two Chinese strategic weapons in the target area, but also those of the BeiDou navigation.
The CCP’s missiles launch has violated the “Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty” signed by the US and Soviet Union in 1987. This is an important step to end the cold war and the US has been wanting to get China to join this treaty, but it refuses. On Aug. 2, 2019, the US officially withdrew from the Treaty so as to fight against the military expansion and provocation from Xi Jinping’s regime to the world. Xi’s decision on missile launching in the disputed waters is a public nuclear deterrence towards Taiwan, the US and countries in the South China Sea.
On Aug. 25, the day before the missile launch, “People’s Daily” published a 30,000 words lengthy article from Xinhua News Agency. It was in response to the speech made by US Secretary of State Pompeo in Richard Nixon Presidential Library a month ago. Xinhua News Agency quoted an excerpt from Pompeo’s speech to criticize and hurl abusive comments. Knowing what Pompeo actually said was like hopping through the censorship firewall for the Chinese readers, who never normally receive information from the “outside world.” Pompeo declared that the US’s “old paradigm of blind engagement with China” has failed and from now on, they will be brave and get in touch with the Chinese people directly, unite the free world and US and induce change in China. A month later Trump, when receiving the nomination from the Republicans Convention, further explained Pompeo’s speech: if Trump fails to be re-elected, then the US would belong to the CCP.
After Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech in 1946 followed by 40 years of cold war, the established international order was on a “peaceful rise.” The CCP has never given up on unifying Taiwan by force, but Mao, Jiang, Hu have all abided by “peaceful rise.” Xi is however completely different. What he challenges is exactly this international order; from trade war to suppressing Hong Kong; from spreading the Wuhan virus to the world to implementing Hong Kong national security law. This provocation challenges freedom, civilization and safety of human lives.
On the day of the missile launch, the US made an entities list of the 24 China Communications Construction group companies that reclaimed land in South China Sea for the CCP. All the roads, military outposts and installations the CCP paved and set up on the eight islands and reefs in the South China Sea have been announced to the world. Along with the 11 state-run, PLA related enterprises in the US sanctions list, they all take part in Xi’s Belt and Road initiative and have built 124 deep-water ports, 13,000 kilometers of airports and roads for the CCP in 151 countries.
Since the US started a full-scale financial, technology and trade war on the CCP, many Chinese provinces are facing severe flood which led to drastic price inflation on goods and a high unemployment rate. But instead of taking care of its own people’s livelihood, the CCP decided to use unifying Taiwan by force as the last strategic means as an attempt to save its regime. But with the presence of the Five Eyes and the joint defense of the US, Japan and Taiwan, unifying Taiwan by force would just be an elusive dream.
(Lui Yue, veteran Chinese journalist)
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