The numbers are spectacular. In August alone, 446 incursions by Chinese fighter jets took place in Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (Adiz). This is more than the 380 passages of Chinese devices recorded over the whole of 2020. Thus in the first eight months of 2022, Beijing made 1,068 incursions into the Taiwanese Adiz, exceeding the 969 of 2021.
The 23 million inhabitants of Taiwan live under the constant threat of a military invasion by China, under the cane of Xi Jinping, who considers the island as part of his territory to be reconquered one day, and if necessary by the strength. The record August incursions came as Beijing staged unprecedented military maneuvers to protest the visit to Taipei by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other politicians.
China “will take countermeasures”
The Chinese Communist Party opposes any diplomatic action that might confer legitimacy on Taiwan and has reacted with increasing aggression to visits by Western officials. Like his anger expressed on September 2, at the announcement of the sale by the United States of arms to Taiwan for a little over a billion dollars.
Since 2010, Americans have sold more than $35 billion worth of weapons to the island. These sales are “essential to Taiwan’s security and we will continue to work with the defense industry to support this goal”explained a spokesperson for the State Department.
Beijing immediately demanded that Washington “dismiss immediately” arms sales to Taiwan, “lest they further affect relations with the United States, as well as peace and stability in the Taiwan Straitexplained a spokesperson for Chinese diplomacy. China will resolutely take legitimate and necessary countermeasures in view of the situation.” Already, on Saturday September 3, two Chinese fighter planes would have crossed the “median zone”, which acts as a border between the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan).
A drone war launched by Beijing
Even before the announcement of this contract, Taiwanese soldiers stationed on a tiny islet off the coast of mainland China shot down a “unidentified civilian drone” after it entered a restricted area, according to the Taipei military.
“The stationed troops followed the procedures to warn the drone, but without success. The drone was shot down in defensive fire”, said the Minister of Defense. The device entered a “restricted area” above Lion Islet, located between mainland China and Taiwan’s Kinmen Islands. It is the first time that Taiwanese forces have shot down a drone, at a time when tensions with Beijing are at their highest level in decades.