After a US P-8A anti-submarine patrol aircraft flew through the Taiwan Straits and hyped up the transit publicly on Tuesday, a Chinese military spokesperson said the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command had organized warplanes to follow, monitor and deal with the US aircraft according to the law and regulations.
Troops of the PLA Eastern Theater Command remain on high alert at all times and are resolutely safeguarding China’s national sovereignty as well as regional peace and stability, said Naval Senior Captain Li Xi, spokesperson of the Eastern Theater Command.
In a video the Eastern Command Theater released on Tuesday to mark the Mid-Autumn Festival, a time for family reunion, the PLA, in a rare move, publicized footage of the PLA’s monitoring of foreign vessels transiting the Taiwan Straits in recent years.
It is clear from the video that the movements of these foreign vessels, regardless of their size or service life, are completely under the monitoring of the PLA.
The footage confirms the strong capabilities, firm determination and unwavering confidence of the PLA in controlling the Taiwan Straits.
In the face of the “clowns” meddling in the Taiwan question, the PLA is completely confident and capable of safeguarding peace in the Taiwan Straits and protecting national unity, a military expert told the Global Times on Tuesday on condition of anonymity.
The US Seventh Fleet claimed in a statement that the transiting of the P-8A demonstrates “the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
The Pentagon usually claims the transit to be a “innocent passage,” but it is indeed based on US hegemonic logic, experts said, calling on countries all over the world to remain vigilant to that.
According to military experts, a P-8A can perform various tasks such as anti-submarine, anti-ship, reconnaissance and surveillance.
Given the high sensitivity of this area, the behavior of the US military is definitely “not innocent passage, but a blatant provocation,” military expert Fu Qianshao told the Global Times.
Through the transit, the US is boasting of its military presence in order to display capacity to intervene in the Taiwan question, and it wants to show that it still maintains a grasp of the regional situation, Lü Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
In another development, the US State Department said Monday that it has approved a possible foreign military sale to Taiwan valued at about US$228 million for “return, repair, and reshipment of spare parts and related equipment,” Reuters reported.
It is the 16th time the Biden administration has authorized the sale of military goods and services to Taiwan, exceeding the 11 times by his predecessor Donald Trump.
The US’ moves are detrimental to the momentum of stabilizing the bilateral relationship and increase the risk of misjudgments and crisis, Lü said.
He added that China, while maintaining its efforts to responsibly manage its relations with the US, also has to “prepare for an accidental conflict,” Lü noted.
GT
