Taiwan scrambles to deploy air defenses in response to Chinese incursion

Taiwan has scrambled fighter jets, put its navy on alert and activated missile systems in response to the actions of 34 Chinese military aircraft and nine warships nearby.

China’s deployment is part of Beijing’s strategy to destabilize and intimidate democracies on the self-governing island.

The massive drill comes as Beijing ramps up preparations for a potential blockade or direct attack on Taiwan, raising major concerns among military leaders in the United States, Taiwan’s main ally.

In a memo last month, U.S. Air Force Gen. Mike Minihan instructed military officers to prepare for a U.S.-China conflict over Taiwan in 2025. As the head of Air Mobility Command, General Minihan has a keen understanding of the Chinese military, and his personal remarks and calls for the United States to strengthen its preparations.

Taiwan’s defense ministry said 20 Chinese planes crossed the Taiwan Strait’s median line, which has long been an unofficial buffer zone that split the two sides in the 1949 civil war.

China claims the self-governing island republic as its own territory, which can be taken by force, and the vast majority of Taiwanese oppose being controlled by China’s authoritarian Communist Party.

Taiwan’s defense ministry said Taiwan’s armed forces “monitored the situation … to respond to these activities”.

China sends warships, bombers, fighter jets and support aircraft into airspace near Taiwan on an almost daily basis, hoping to drain Taiwan’s limited defense resources and weaken support for pro-independence President Tsai Ing-wen.

Chinese fighter jets have also confronted U.S. and allied military aircraft in international airspace over the South and East China Seas, a maneuver Beijing says is dangerous and threatening.

A string of visits to Taiwan by foreign politicians in recent months, including then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a host of EU politicians, has spurred a show of military muscle on both sides.

In response to Ms Pelosi’s visit in August, China held military exercises around the island and fired missiles into the Pacific.

China has repeatedly threatened retaliation against countries seeking closer ties with Taiwan, but its intimidation attempts have sparked a backlash in sentiment in Europe, Japan, the United States and elsewhere.

Taiwan will hold presidential elections next year, in stark contrast to a system fully controlled by Xi Jinping, China’s president and party chief, who has removed term limits, effectively making him leader for life.

China’s efforts to engage with Taiwan’s pro-unification Kuomintang have largely backfired.

Although the KMT performed well in local elections last year, the party’s pro-Beijing policies failed to resonate with voters nationwide.

Taiwan has responded to the Chinese threat by ordering more defensive weapons from the United States, using its democracy and high-tech economy to strengthen foreign relations and revitalizing its domestic arms industry.

Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to Washington, Bi-khim Hsiao, said the new focus was on preparing reservists and civilians for the kind of whole-society struggle the Ukrainians are waging against Russia.

“Everything we’re doing now is to prevent the pain and suffering of the Ukrainian tragedy from being repeated in our Taiwan scene,” Ms. Xiao told the Associated Press.

“So ultimately, we seek to prevent the use of force. But in the worst-case scenario, we understand that we have to be better prepared.”