On Tuesday, the president of the United States, Joe Biden, assured that he had spoken with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, about Taiwan and agreed to abide by the status quo. At the same time, the tension between Beijing and Taipei has increased.
“I have spoken with Xi about Taiwan. We agree … to abide by the arrangement on Taiwan. We have made it clear that I do not think he should be doing anything other than abide by the agreement,” Biden told reporters in Washington after returning from a trip to Michigan.
Capable of invasion by 2025
On Wednesday, Taiwanese Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said that China will be “capable of organizing a large-scale invasion” of the island by 2025 and stressed that relations between Taipei and Beijing are going through “their worst moment in 40 years”.
According to Chiu, according to the Taiwanese news agency CNA, Beijing already has “the capacity to attack the island, but at a high cost”, which would be lower by 2025, the year in which the minister foresees that China could “organize an invasion to big scale”.
Chinese air incursions
A total of 56 Chinese fighter jets entered Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) on 4th October Night, the island’s Defense Ministry said.
According to Taiwan’s Defence Ministry, there were two separate incursions in the southwest area of the ADIZ in which J-16, J-11 and Su-30 fighters, H-6 bombers, KJ-500 radar planes and Y reconnaissance aircraft participated.
On October 2, a total of 19 Chinese fighter jets entered Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), according to a statement from the island’s Defense Ministry published on its website on October 3.
According to the Ministry, the planes entered the ADIZ through the southwest area and, following the dispatch of planes from Taiwan who followed up and urged them to withdraw, they turned around and left the ADIZ.
The Ministry said in a statement on October 2 that a total of 38 Chinese aircraft had entered the Taiwanese ADIZ on October 1, the day on which Beijing was celebrating the anniversary of the proclamation of the People’s Republic of China.
Among the 38 aeroplanes on October 1, which entered the ADIZ in two waves, there was an H-6, which can carry nuclear bombs.
On September 24, Taiwan had reported that 24 Chinese fighter jets carried out incursions similar to the 23rd shortly after Taiwan applied to join the Progressive and Comprehensive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), something that Beijing opposes ‘categorically”.
China claims the sovereignty of Taiwan, where the Chinese nationalists withdrew after their defeat in the Chinese Civil War.
In Beijing’s view, the island is a rebel province whose reunification has not ruled out the use of force.