MESSAGE
| DATE | 2020-09-27 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] Who is our trading partner in China?
|
Here is three articles in the WSJ outlining current actions in China to
subjugate and destroy the Muslim nation in Xinjiang and there
persecution of political decent. Then there is the threat to Taiwan
with recent military action by Communist China threatening Taiwan
independence. This is a no holds bar dictatorship with a cruel and
brutal track record of supressing peoples and expanding its colonial
asperations.
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/xi-says-china-will-continue-efforts-to-assimilate-muslims-in-xinjiang-11601133450
wsj.com
Xi Says China Will Continue Efforts to Assimilate Muslims in Xinjiang
Chun Han Wong
6-8 minutes
HONG KONG—Chinese leader Xi Jinping declared success in his approach to
governing the region of Xinjiang, signaling no letup in the Communist
Party’s forceful campaign to assimilate millions of ethnic Muslims on
the country’s northwestern frontier.
“Practice has proven that the party’s strategy for governing Xinjiang in
the new era is completely correct,” and it must continue for the long
term, Mr. Xi said at a two-day party conference on Xinjiang policy that
concluded Saturday, according to a state media report.
Addressing a Beijing gathering of officials from the party leadership,
central government and Xinjiang, among others, Mr. Xi also ordered the
entire Communist Party to consider it a political mission to implement
the Xinjiang strategy, which he said brought the region closer toward
long-term peace and stability.
Managing Xinjiang affairs well “is a major task for the entire party and
the entire nation,” and one that requires strengthening the party’s
“unified leadership” across the country, Mr. Xi said.
Xi Jinping said Xinjiang’s gross domestic product grew by an annual
average of about 7.2% from 2014 to 2019.
Photo: Ding Lei/Zuma Press
These remarks marked Mr. Xi’s most full-throated public endorsement of
the high-pressure campaign Beijing has waged to stamp out separatist
sentiment in Xinjiang—an effort that has encompassed mass detentions and
forced-assimilation of ethnic Muslims over recent years, and stirred
international backlash over allegations of widespread human-rights abuses.
This week’s conference was the party’s first major conclave on Xinjiang
policy since 2014. It is expected to chart Beijing’s agenda in the
region for the next five years or so. The meeting wasn’t announced ahead
of time.
The Communist Party has long struggled to manage Xinjiang, a mountainous
frontier abutting Central Asia where about 12 million Turkic-speaking
Muslim Uighurs live. Separatist sentiment among Uighurs has simmered
there for decades, occasionally flaring into deadly attacks against
symbols of Beijing’s authority and the country’s Han Chinese majority.
The party’s previous Xinjiang policy conclave took place amid a spate of
deadly attacks that were attributed to Uighur separatists. Among them
was a bomb-and-knife attack in April 2014 that rocked Xinjiang’s capital
of Urumqi shortly after Mr. Xi concluded a tour of the region. A bomb
attack at a Urumqi street market the following month killed at least 31
people, just days before that year’s Xinjiang policy conclave.
At the May 2014 conference, Mr. Xi demanded an all-out effort to quash
separatism and terrorist activities in Xinjiang, and his administration
has since adopted increasingly hard-line measures to stamp out
resistance to Communist rule in the region.
These efforts have intensified dramatically since 2017, as local
authorities rolled out the use of blanket digital surveillance,
mass-internment camps and political-indoctrination programs to rein in
the Uighur population. Officials have also targeted Uighur culture,
demolishing neighborhoods and tearing down mosques and other religious
sites.
Human-rights advocates and Western governments have denounced these
methods, while United Nations officials have voiced concern and sought
access to Xinjiang to carry out fact-finding visits. Chinese officials
have denied committing any rights abuses, while portraying their
policies in Xinjiang as a benign effort to help Uighurs improve their
lives. They have also declared success in restoring stability to the
region, saying no cases of violent terrorism have taken place there for
more than three years.
This week, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute published a pair of
research reports—based largely on satellite imagery—alleging that
Chinese authorities have razed or damaged two-thirds of the mosques in
Xinjiang and continued to expand mass-detention camps for Uighurs over
the last past year.
China’s Foreign Ministry rejected those claims as smears. Chinese
officials have previously accused ASPI, which is partly funded by the
Australian and U.S. governments, of concocting research on China—an
allegation that ASPI researchers have denied.
In his conference speech, Mr. Xi made no reference to these programs or
his 2014 demands for eradicating separatism and terrorism in Xinjiang.
Instead, he listed what he described as major policy achievements since
2014, including economic and social development, rising incomes and
reduced poverty rates.
Mr. Xi said Xinjiang’s gross domestic product grew by an annual average
of about 7.2% from 2014 to 2019, reaching the equivalent of about $200
billion at current rates, while more than 2.9 million residents were
assessed to have “escaped poverty” over the same period.
“On the whole, Xinjiang is presenting a favorable situation of social
stability and people living and working in peace,” Mr. Xi said. “The
facts provide ample proof that our country is successful in its ethnic
policy.”
In an apparent response to international criticism of Beijing’s Xinjiang
policy, Mr. Xi demanded comprehensive efforts to “tell Xinjiang’s
stories well,” and to publicize the region’s development successes “with
the courage of our convictions.”
Mr. Xi also called for greater efforts to strengthen a sense of Chinese
national identity in Xinjiang, such as through research and educational
programs that inculcate correct attitudes on history, culture and
religion. Efforts to “sinicize” Islam—infusing pro-party ideas into
religious practices—must also continue, he said.
The goal, according to Mr. Xi, is to ensure the “common consciousness of
the Chinese nation takes root deep inside people’s hearts.”
Write to Chun Han Wong at chunhan.wong-at-wsj.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
China Razed Thousands of Xinjiang Mosques in Assimilation Push, Report Says
China Razed Thousands of Xinjiang Mosques in Assimilation Push, Report Says
Chao Deng
8-10 minutes
New research shows Chinese authorities have razed or damaged two-thirds
of the mosques in China’s remote northwestern region of Xinjiang,
further illuminating the scope of a forced cultural-assimilation
campaign targeting millions of Uighur Muslims.
In a report published Friday, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute
said satellite imagery showed that roughly 8,500 mosques, close to a
third of the region’s total, have been demolished since 2017. Another
7,500 have sustained damage, the report said.
Important Islamic sacred sites, including shrines, cemeteries and
pilgrimage routes, were also demolished, damaged or altered, the study
found.
On Thursday, the Canberra-based think tank published another report,
also based largely on satellite imagery, that identified more than 380
suspected detention facilities in Xinjiang it said were newly built or
had been expanded significantly since 2017. At least 61 of the sites
have been expanded since July 2019, including more than a dozen that
were still under construction this year, it said.
Human-rights groups and Western governments say Xinjiang authorities
have detained a million or more Uighurs and a smaller number of ethnic
Kazakhs in a sprawling network of internment camps. Their existence has
been previously reported by The Wall Street Journal and other news
organizations. China’s government has characterized them as vocational
schools.
The two reports challenge recent assertions from Chinese officials that
they are protecting religious sites in Xinjiang and closing down
re-education camps.
“The Chinese government’s destruction of cultural heritage aims to
erase, replace and rewrite what it means to be Uyghur,” said the report
Friday, using an alternative spelling for the group.
China’s Foreign Ministry on Friday repeated its claims that Xinjiang has
around 24,000 mosques and that the number of them per capita among
Muslims in Xinjiang is higher than in many Muslim countries. It said
that China fully protects the human and religious rights of all ethnic
minorities and described the ASPI report as “smear and rumor.” It denied
the existence of detention camps in Xinjiang.
Uighur men praying in a mosque in Hotan, in Xinjiang, in 2015.
Photo: greg baker/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
The Chinese government has previously accused ASPI, which is partly
funded by the Australian and U.S. governments, of concocting research on
China. The think tank’s researchers have rejected those criticisms,
presenting evidence—oftentimes drawn from official Chinese sources—to
support their claims.
China’s ruling Communist Party has long struggled to manage Xinjiang,
which for decades has been home to a sporadically violent Uighur-led
separatist movement. Since early 2017, the party has used blanket
digital surveillance and the re-education camps to attempt to track and
neutralize Uighurs it sees as threatening.
The campaign has evolved over time, with authorities moving on to
demolishing Uighur neighborhoods and purging Uighur culture.
In its Friday report, ASPI estimated that around half of important
Islamic sacred sites—many of which are supposed to be protected under
Chinese law—have been damaged or altered since 2017.
After locking up as many as a million people in camps in Xinjiang,
Chinese authorities are destroying Uighur neighborhoods and purging the
region's culture. They say they’re fighting terrorism. Their aim: to
engineer a society loyal to Beijing. First published in March 2019.
Photo illustration: Sharon Shi. Video: Clément Bürge
The report estimated there are fewer than 15,500 mosques left intact in
Xinjiang, the lowest number since the 1980s, when Uighurs had just begun
rebuilding mosques destroyed during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution.
Most of the land where mosques were razed remained vacant, it said.
The campaign is part of a longer-term trend to transform communities in
the name of public safety. The strategy has gained pace under President
Xi Jinping who has called for the “Sinicization” of religion, said James
Leibold, a professor at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, who
contributed to both of the reports.
“The [Communist] Party is making assessments about the reliability of
Uighurs and thinking of different ways to erase opposition and erase the
Uighur people’s cultural religion and identity,” he said.
Under fire from Western governments, Chinese officials have portrayed
the campaign in Xinjiang as a benign effort to help Uighurs improve
their lives. Xinjiang’s governor, Shohrat Zakir, said in December that
all of the people sent to re-education centers had “graduated,”
suggesting the facilities would be shut down.
During a visit the following month, the Journal found that some
facilities had indeed been closed, with former detainees sometimes sent
away to work in factories. One facility had been converted into a prison
after being previously described as a school.
Of the dozens of facilities ASPI identified as recently under
construction, roughly half were higher-security facilities. The
most-secure facilities had high walls, multiple layers of perimeter
barriers, watchtowers and dozens of cell blocks with no apparent outside
exercise yard for detainees, it said.
Authorities are likely singling out people who they have lost hope of
re-educating and putting them into long periods of incarceration, said
Mr. Leibold. It is “the only way to really explain their pretty
remarkable expansion,” he said.
The building up of some facilities comes despite unprecedented pressure
from Washington amid rising tensions between the U.S. and China.
China has turned the northwestern region of Xinjiang into a vast
experiment in domestic surveillance. WSJ investigated what life is like
in a place where one's every move can be monitored with cutting-edge
technology. First published in December 2017. Video: Clément Bürge/WSJ;
Image: DeepGlint
Since July, the U.S. government has imposed sanctions on companiesand
individuals it accuses of being involved in human-rights violations in
the region, including Xinjiang’s top official, and blacklisted several
Xinjiang-based suppliers to major Western brands.
The increased scrutiny has made it harder for Western companies to do
business in Xinjiang. Earlier this month, the White House blocked
imports of goods from Xinjiang allegedly produced using forced labor.
Meanwhile, several auditors have stopped offering to inspect companies’
labor conditions in Xinjiang factories, citing problems like police
pressure.
One challenge in pressuring China’s government over its Xinjiang
policies is the relative silence of Muslim-majority countries. ASPI made
its work available in 10 different languages to try to raise awareness
beyond the English-speaking world, said Mr. Leibold.
The report called on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization, or Unesco, which promotes the preservation of
cultural heritage, to confront the Chinese government and investigate
the state of Uighur and Islamic cultural sites in Xinjiang.
A Unesco spokeswoman said the organization had no immediate comment. The
International Council on Monuments and Sites, which advises the
organization, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Write to Chao Deng at Chao.Deng-at-wsj.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-sentences-xi-critic-ren-zhiqiang-to-18-years-in-prison-11600755598?mod=world_major_3_pos3
wsj.com
China Sentences Xi Critic Ren Zhiqiang to 18 Years in Prison
Chun Han Wong
9-11 minutes
HONG KONG—A Beijing court sentenced an influential businessman known for
his outspoken criticism of China’s leader, Xi Jinping, to 18 years in
prison, meting out harsh punishment in a corruption case that is likely
to chill dissent within the Chinese political elite.
Ren Zhiqiang, 69 years old, was sentenced Tuesday after being convicted
of corruption, receiving bribes, embezzlement and abuse of power, the
Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court said in an online notice. Mr.
Ren, a well-connected member of Beijing’s political and business
circles, was also fined the equivalent of about $619,000.
The verdict came two months after the Communist Party expelled Mr. Ren
over allegations of political disloyalty and corruption, and marked the
culmination of a monthslong investigation against the retired
real-estate mogul. Friends say he had disappeared in mid-March soon
after writing an essay that appeared to excoriate Mr. Xi as an imperious
clown for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
President Xi Jinping at an event to honor some of those involved in
China's fight against Covid-19, in Beijing, Sept. 8.
Photo: Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press
A former chairman of a state-owned property company, Mr. Ren has been
the most prominent target in a broad crackdown on dissent in China this
year. In recent months, a legal scholar known for criticizing Mr. Xi was
detained briefly by police and then fired from a top Beijing university,
while a retired party academic was stripped of her party membership and
pension after an audio recording of her denouncing the Chinese leader
surfaced online.
Mr. Ren’s sentencing also comes just weeks ahead of a major Communist
Party conclave in October where top officials are due to discuss China’s
long-term economic blueprint—an opportunity for Mr. Xi to imprint his
authority as he grapples with a pandemic-ravaged domestic economy and
fast-fraying ties with the U.S.
The harsh punishment for Mr. Ren “seems directed at China’s
most-influential elite, reminding them to keep in line,” said Ryan
Manuel, managing director of research company Official China, which is
based in Hong Kong. “Xi brooks no challenge—you just can’t call him a
clown. Ever.”
Mr. Ren was accused of wrongdoing from 2003 to 2017 that included
embezzling and misappropriating more than the equivalent of $16.3
million at current rates, and receiving bribes valued at more than
$184,000, according to the court notice. It said he was also charged
with causing about $17.2 million in losses for state enterprises while
reaping personal benefit.
The court said Mr. Ren had confessed to all charges and declined to
appeal. He couldn’t be reached for comment. A friend of Mr. Ren’s said
he was represented by a government-appointed lawyer.
In a departure from some high-profile corruption cases involving
influential officials and party members in recent years, Mr. Ren’s trial
received no official publicity when it took place earlier this month,
and the court and state media haven’t released any courtroom imagery.
“ “Xi brooks no challenge—you just can’t call him a clown. Ever.” ”
— Ryan Manuel, research company Official China
As a party insider who was popular among ordinary Chinese for what many
saw as his straight-talking style, Mr. Ren has been regarded as a potent
symbol of dissent against Mr. Xi’s authority, and authorities are making
an example of him by imposing a harsh sentence, China politics watchers
said.
“They are killing a bull for the cattle to see,” said a retired politics
professor in Beijing. Given Mr. Ren’s pedigree as a son of a former
senior official, Mr. Xi likely hopes that imprisoning him will deter
other outspoken members of the party elite, the professor said.
Friends say the case against Mr. Ren was politically motivated. In his
essay, which began circulating on Chinese social media in early March,
he focused on a Communist Party meeting in February where Mr. Xi
addressed some 170,000 officials across the country via teleconference
to issue instructions on managing the pandemic. Mr. Xi wasn’t named, but
many readers inferred he was the target of Mr. Ren’s attacks.
“There stood not an emperor displaying his ‘new clothes,’ but a clown
who stripped off his clothes and still insisted on being an emperor,”
the essay read. “Despite holding up pieces and pieces of loincloth in
trying to hide the reality of your nakedness, you don’t hide in the
slightest your resolute ambition to become an emperor.”
The Communist Party expelled Mr. Ren in July, citing wide-ranging
allegations spanning political misdeeds such as disloyalty and economic
crimes including corruption. Investigators alleged Mr. Ren had deviated
from party leadership on “major matters of principle,” published essays
that oppose the party’s cardinal tenets, besmirched the party and the
state, distorted party history, and showed disloyalty and dishonesty to
the party.
The party’s statement on Mr. Ren’s expulsion included allegations that
didn’t appear in Tuesday’s court notice, such as that he collaborated
with his children to “wantonly accumulate wealth.”
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A former soldier whose father was a vice commerce minister, Mr. Ren has
been called “Cannon Ren” for his outspoken views on topics ranging from
real estate to politics, often shared through social-media posts. He has
been widely seen as an influential member of the party elite, whose
friends included senior officials such as Chinese Vice President Wang
Qishan.
Mr. Ren has ruffled feathers before. In 2016, after he publicly
questioned Mr. Xi’s demands for media loyalty, internet regulators shut
down Mr. Ren’s Twitter-like Weibo microblog, where he had accumulated
more than 37 million followers. The party also put Mr. Ren on probation
for a year, during which he was stripped of all party duties and barred
from voting or participating in internal elections.
Mr. Ren had steered clear of further trouble until this year, when he
and other critics voiced anger about Beijing’s initial mishandling of
the coronavirus pandemic—and incurred the party’s wrath.
Joining Mr. Ren in slamming the pandemic response was Xu Zhangrun, a
former Tsinghua University law professor who came to prominence as a Xi
critic with a 2018 essay accusing the leader of reviving Mao Zedong’s
dictatorial style. Tsinghua dismissed Mr. Xu in July shortly after
police detained him for nearly a week as punishment for allegedly
soliciting prostitution—a charge he has denied.
The following month, the party revoked the membership of Cai Xia, a
67-year-old retired professor at Beijing’s elite Central Party School,
after an audio recording emerged of her criticizing Mr. Xi and
describing the party as a political zombie. Ms. Cai, who was reprimanded
by school officials in 2016 over her outspoken support of Mr. Ren at the
time, is currently in the U.S. and has continued lashing out at Mr. Xi’s
leadership.
Then in September, police in Beijing detained a friend of Mr. Xu’s who
had spoken up for him during his detention, according to her lawyer and
Mr. Xu.
Geng Xiaonan and her husband, who jointly run a publishing company, were
taken into custody on Sept. 9 over allegations that they were operating
an illegal business, according to her lawyer, Shang Baojun, who said he
hasn’t been able to meet the couple so far. Mr. Xu said he believes Ms.
Geng, 46 years old, was detained due to her support for him.
“There used to be more channels for dissent that allowed one to sail
close to the wind,” said Mr. Manuel, the researcher. “There are now none
of these left.”
Write to Chun Han Wong at chunhan.wong-at-wsj.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/517573-taiwan-warns-china-to-back-off
thehill.com
Taiwan warns China to 'back off'
2 minutes
Taiwan advised China on Tuesday to "back off," accusing the nation of
threatening peace after a Beijing official rejected an observance of a
marine median line.
Agence France-Presse reported Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu urged
Beijing to "return to the civilized international standards" after a
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman dismissed an established median in
the Taiwan Strait, saying "Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese
territory."
Despite Taiwan's more than seven-decades of self-rule since the Chinese
Civil War, the People's Republic of China asserts the island is part of
its territory.
"The median line has been a symbol of preventing military conflicts and
maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait for many years," Wu
said to reporters. "The Chinese foreign ministry's comment is equivalent
of destroying the status quo."
Beijing has been adding pressure over its claimed rule of the island
since the 2012 election of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, who has
been critical of the "one China" consensus.
On Friday, Taiwan scrambled several fighter jets after China sent 18
planes over the Taiwan Strait as a show of force while U.S. officials
conducted meetings in Taiwan.
Taiwan accused China last year of violations of a long-held agreement
after Chinese fighter jets crossed the median line for the first time in
years.
This month, Chinese exercises have been ramping in the airspace beyond
the median line, with Taiwanese authorities describing the move as a
destabilization tactic.
Last week, the Trump administration announced plans to approve a large
arms sale to Taiwan, including anti-ship missiles and other long-range
missiles.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/taiwan-chinas-military-flew-planes-island-days-73211607
abcnews.go.com
Taiwan: China's military flew surveillance planes on 3 days
ABC News
3-4 minutes
Taiwan says China sent two military surveillance planes toward the
island for three straight days and it dispatched patrols in response
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwan on Thursday condemned recent Chinese military
activity after Beijing sent two military surveillance planes toward the
island for three straight days, calling it a “deliberate provocation.”
Tensions have risen in the Taiwan Strait as the U.S. has stepped up its
official engagement with the self-ruled island that China considers part
of its national territory.
On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, China sent two planes into Taiwan's
air defense identification zone, according to Taiwan's Ministry of
National Defense. In response, the Taiwanese side dispatched air
patrols, the ministry said.
“We oppose China using military force against Taiwan, deliberately
violating Taiwan’s naval and airspace safety and damaging the status
quo,” added Chiu Chui-Cheng, deputy minister at Taiwan's Mainland
Affairs Council. “Our government will continue to cooperate with
countries with similar values.”
Asked about the sorties, Chinese defense ministry spokesperson Tan Kefei
said they were aimed at demonstrating China’s “determination and ability
to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
China is targeting “the interference of external forces and the very
small number of Taiwan independence separatists and their separatist
activities,” Tan said at a monthly briefing.
Last week, China sent a total of 37 warplanes, including bombers and
fighter jets, across the Taiwan Strait in a warning as a high-level U.S.
State Department official visited the island. The Taiwanese defense
ministry said the planes crossed the midline of the Taiwan Strait.
The midline has acted as an unofficial buffer zone between China and
Taiwan for decades, in what the Mainland Affairs Council called “a tacit
agreement that has kept the peace.”
On Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin denied the
existence of any midline, saying that Taiwan is part of China. He also
warned that China would retaliate for the U.S. visit. “We will take
countermeasures, including against relevant individuals," he said.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has remained defiant, visiting a
military base on Tuesday and encouraging the personnel, in particular
pilots and crew.
Taiwanese foreign minister Joseph Wu said in July that Chinese military
exercises have increased in frequency and become “virtually a daily
occurrence."
China has increased diplomatic and military pressure on Tsai’s
government over her refusal to agree to China’s insistence that the
island be considered part of Chinese territory. The vast majority of
Taiwanese reject the prospect of political union with China under the
“one country, two systems” framework used for Hong Kong.
Following Tsai's election in 2016, China cut off contact with the
Taiwanese government and has sought to isolate it, siphoning off the
island's diplomatic allies while ratcheting up political, military and
economic pressure.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
https://www.reuters.com/article/taiwan-security/taiwans-armed-forces-strain-in-undeclared-war-of-attrition-with-china-idUSL3N2GM1SG
reuters.com
Taiwan's armed forces strain in undeclared war of attrition with China
Ben Blanchard
4-5 minutes
KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan (Reuters) - Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen visited a
low-key but critical maintenance base for fighter jet engines on
Saturday, offering encouragement as the Chinese-claimed island’s armed
forces strain in the face of repeated Chinese air force incursions.
Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen visits an Air Force maintenance centre
at the Gangshan air base in Kaohsiung, Taiwan September 26, 2020.
REUTERS/Ben Blanchard
This month alone, China’s drills have included its jets crossing the
mid-line of the sensitive Taiwan Strait and exercising near the
Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands in the South China Sea.
Beijing regards Taiwan as a wayward province and has never renounced the
use of force to bring the democratic island under its control.
Taiwan’s air force has repeatedly scrambled to intercept Chinese jets.
Though they have not flown over mainland Taiwan itself, the flights have
ramped up pressure, both financial and physical, on Taiwan’s air force
to ensure its aircraft are ready to go at any moment.
Visiting the Gangshan air base in southern Taiwan’s Kaohsiung, Tsai
received a detailed account of how the maintenance crew is making sure
Taiwan’s F-16 and other fighters are operating at peak performance.
She appeared slightly taken aback when told the cost of one small
component for the F-CK-1 Ching-kuo Indigenous Defence Fighter was
T$380,000 ($13,000).
Speaking later to sailors at the nearby Zuoying naval base, Tsai
promised to be the strongest backer of the island’s armed forces.
“If there was no backup or help from you all, the military’s steadfast
combat strength would be greatly reduced,” she said.
Taiwan’s air force is dwarfed by China’s, and the strain of the multiple
sorties on Taiwan’s armed forces have begun to show.
Taiwan’s Defence Ministry this month said the “dramatic increase” in the
threat level, along with the aircraft being “middle-aged” had led to a
huge increase in maintenance costs not originally budgeted for.
Saldik Fafana, 21，a trainee air force engineer at the Gangshan base,
said he had noticed an impact recently. “There is more work,” he told
reporters.
‘CONSTANTLY ON EDGE’
Taiwan is revamping its fighter line-up.
The United States last year approved an $8 billion sale of F-16 fighter
jets to Taiwan, a deal that would bringing the island’s total to more
than 200, the largest F-16 fleet in Asia.
Premier Su Tseng-chang expressed concern on Wednesday about the cost of
the tensions with China.
“Each time the communist aircraft harass Taiwan, our air force takes to
the skies, and it is extremely costly. This isn’t only a burden for
Taiwan, but quite a big one for China too,” he said.
One Taiwan-based diplomat, citing conversations with security officials,
said China appeared to be waging a campaign of attrition with its
frequent fly-bys.
“China is trying to wear out Taiwan’s pilots by keeping them constantly
on edge,” the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
Taiwan’s Defence Ministry, in a report to parliament last month, a copy
of which was reviewed by Reuters, said China’s flights over the narrow
strait’s mid-line were aimed at reducing Taiwan’s response time.
This has put “enormous pressure” on Taiwan’s frontline responders, it said.
Chinese flights to Taiwan’s southwest, including at night, are “an
attempt to exhaust our air defences”, the ministry added, warning that
if these become regular fixtures, they will “increase our burden of
response”.
Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by William Mallard
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