Beijing's warning

 

SCMP,

28 January, 2021

Beijing gave a stern warning to the new Joe Biden administration and Taiwan that the pursuit of independence for the self-ruled island “means war”.

Chinese defence ministry spokesman Wu Qian said on Thursday that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was carrying out military activities in the Taiwan Strait as a necessary “stern response to the interference by external forces and the provocations of the Taiwan independence forces”.

“We are seriously telling those Taiwan independence forces: those who play with fire will burn themselves, and Taiwan independence means war,” Wu told a regular press conference in Beijing.

“The Chinese People’s Liberation Army will take all necessary measures to resolutely thwart any form of Taiwan independence separatist attempts and firmly defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Wu made the statement after military tension in the Taiwan Strait significantly built up in recent years under pro-independence Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and pro-Taiwan former US president Donald Trump. Wu said the seeking of Taiwanese independence was a “bubble” that could make little waves.

Beijing regards the self-ruled island as a breakaway province that must be reunited with the mainland, and has always said it will never renounce the option of using force. It opposes any foreign interference on this “internal affair of China”.

Over the weekend, mainland China sent 13 warplanes to the southern end of the Taiwan Strait, according to the Taiwanese defence ministry. They included a Y-8 transport aircraft, eight H-6K bombers and four J-16 fighter jets.

The military move coincided with a US carrier battle group entering the disputed South China Sea for freedom-of-navigation operations.

Beijing is closely watching whether the Biden administration seeks closer ties with Taiwan, as occurred in the past four years under Trump when Washington removed restrictions on official visits between the US and the island and boosted arms sales to Taipei.

American aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt is seen moored at Naval Base Guam in May 2020. The carrier led a strike group on a “freedom of navigation” exercise, the first routine operation in the region under new president Joe Biden, on Saturday. Photo: US Navy via AFP

Wu said it had been proven that any attempt to contain China was an impossible task and such attempts from the US would ultimately be self-damaging.

The spokesman then said in English: “To contain China, mission impossible”.

On Wednesday, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, nominee to be the US ambassador to the United Nations, said Washington must help Taiwan push back against mainland Chinese efforts to compromise its security.

In a confirmation hearing in the US Senate, she said Taiwan was “one of the strongest democracies in the region”, and the US needed to support and “stand by them”.

Despite delivering the firm warning, Wu described the bilateral relationship between China and the US as “standing at a new starting point of history”, saying China wanted to work with Biden’s government to repair ties.

“We hope that the new US administration will work together with the Chinese side, uphold the spirit of non-conflict and non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation, strengthen dialogue, focus on cooperation, manage differences and promote the healthy and stable development of China-US relations.

“The China-US relationship suffered serious difficulties during the term of the Trump administration, and military-to-military ties faced many risks and challenges,” Wu said.

He said the two militaries had had some “pragmatic exchanges” since Biden came into office, such as a video conference this week regarding the search for the remains of US prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action.

“We hope … to strengthen communication, manage risks, avoid crises and push the relations between the two armies forward along the right track,” he said.

At the same press conference, Wu said the PLA would conduct exchanges on all levels with the North Korean military to promote friendship and safeguard regional peace.

In the face of a second-wave Covid-19 outbreak in China, Wu said the PLA was preparing to help manage treatment and quarantine and send doctors to support civilian public health work.

Is China preparing for war with Taiwan

 

BIDEN’S CRISIS? CHINA’S PLA PREPARES FOR WAR WITH TAIWAN

Today on TruNews, we discuss the first foreign policy crisis of the new administration, as Beijing prepares its military to invade Taiwan and sink any ship not flying the Communist hammer and sickle in the South China Sea. 

We also address the left-wing riots in Washington state and the threat growing against Christians as Democrats push to label believers as religious extremists under a new domestic terror law.

Rick Wiles, Doc Burkhart, Edward Szall. Airdate 01/25/2021

Watch the broadcast HERE

Focus on China and the CCP; a compendium of stories

 

Mainland China has been waging “cognitive warfare” against Taiwan, using weapons such as misinformation and an army of online trolls in an attempt to sway public opinion in Beijing’s favour, a local think tank has warned.

The report said that so far the effect had limited due to relatively strong anti-Beijing sentiment, but it urged the government to remain on guard in case it started to influence public sentiment to the extent that it influenced policy decisions.

According to the Institute for National Defence and Security Research, a government-funded think tank, Beijing has been launching a new type of cognitive warfare against Taiwan by using its 

troll army

 to try to change the paradigm of thinking and eventually the behaviour of the Taiwanese public.

It said it was trying to use both official and unofficial channels, including mainland, Taiwanese and international media organisations and social media, to feed the public misinformation in an attempt to stoke resentment towards President Tsai Ing-wen’s government.

“The cognitive warfare launched by the Chinese Communists became more aggressive in 2020 as reflected by its employment of social media platforms to spread misinformation and create cognitive confusion through stepping up of 

military intimidation

,” the think tank said in its annual report issued in late December.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3116539/beijing-using-cognitive-warfare-sway-taiwan-public-opinion

Business in Hong Kong take notice: The city’s government has taken off its flimsy mask of moderation and arrested over 50 opposition candidates and an American lawyer in dawn raids. Banks and brokerage firms, the lucrative redoubt for financial professional expats, can mostly shrug it off. But for media and technology companies that host or transmit ideas it’s the dawn of a riskier era.

Hong Kong police say that opposition legislators, by holding an unauthorised primary last year and planning to stymie the policy agenda, were effectively trying to overthrow the government, violating a National Security Law that Beijing rammed into force in July. They have detained nearly all the candidates who stood for election in the primary, plus pollsters and organisers like U.S. lawyer John Clancey, chairman of the Asian Human Rights Commission, the first foreigner to be arrested under the new law.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hongkong-security-breakingviews-idUSKBN29B1D9

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9115167/Coronavirus-China-City-11million-locks-neighbourhoods-schools-following-41-COVID-cases.html

The WHO's emergencies director Michael Ryan said Tuesday that the problem was a lack of visa clearances, adding that he hoped it was a 'logistic and bureaucratic issue that can be resolved very quickly.'

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a rare critique of Beijing, says members of the international scientific team have begun over the last 24 hours to leave from their home countries to China as part of an arrangement between WHO and the Chinese government.

'Today, we learned that Chinese officials have not yet finalised the necessary permissions for the team's arrival in China,' he said at a news conference Tuesday in Geneva.  

'I am very disappointed with this news, given that two members had already begun their journeys and others were not able to travel at the last minute,' Tedros told reporters in Geneva, in a rare rebuke of Beijing from the UN body.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9116715/China-denies-entry-team-experts-investigate-origins-Covid-19.html

World Health Organisation (WHO) investigators have been denied access to Wuhan – the province largely thought to be where the coronavirus originated in late 2019 – by Chinese authorities, as another province goes into “wartime” mode over a new outbreak.

According to reports, Beijing is avoiding the independent WHO probe – expected to take between four and five weeks – in a bid to evade being held accountable for the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 1.8 million people worldwide.

Despite a member of the 10-person team telling the BBC the inquiry isn’t about finding a “guilty country” but to understand how similar pandemics could be avoided, Chinese officials are yet to finalise permission for their arrivals.

“Today, we learned that Chinese officials have not yet finalised the necessary permissions for the team’s arrival in China,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters yesterday at a press conference in Geneva.

“I’m very disappointed with this news, given that two members had already begun their journeys and others were not able to travel at the last minute.

“I have been in contact with senior Chinese officials and I have once again made it clear the mission is a priority for WHO and the international team.”

ANOTHER OUTBREAK

The investigation comes as the Chinese province of Hebei plunged into “wartime” mode to combat an outbreak of 59 cases in the last three days, thought to be linked to gatherings.

Officials have launched mass testing for the city’s 11 million residents and schools have shuttered, with the infections thought to be traced to social events like funerals and weddings in the village of Xiaguozhuang.

  

 

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The village has now been sealed off, with any gatherings or visits between relatives now banned. Police have also reportedly set up roadblocks on routes out of the county.

Respiratory expert at Peking University First Hospital, Wang Guangfu, told the Global Times that the possibility of an asymptomatic spreader “could not be ruled out”.

Feng Zijian, an expert from the China CDC, told the publication the source of the infection is likely from Europe.

https://www.news.com.au/world/coronavirus/global/coronavirus-china-bans-who-investigators-from-wuhan/news-story/d93726011da8f136b72d4b366b40da1artazz                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/top-us-official-says-growing-body-evidence-shows-covid-19-leaked-chinese-lab

More than 50 Hong Kong activists arrested under national security law

Chinese authorities have funded projects that are aimed at obtaining foreign advanced technologies through partnerships with international research institutions, a series of leaked government documents recently obtained by The Epoch Times reveals.

Public records show that China’s Ministry of Science and Technology is behind the efforts.

Hebei International Talent Exchange Association (also known as International Technology Transfer Center) was established in 1988 in Hebei Province. It has more than 200 international technical projects and more than 300 foreign experts, covering more than 10 fields, including artificial intelligence, information communication, biology, medicine, and health.

Expanding Cooperation Channels

The organization issued a report, “Hebei Provincial Budget Project Performance Evaluation Form” on Nov. 17, 2020, in which it explicitly states that the group aims to “introduce foreign advanced technology … and realize technology transfer [to China].”

To achieve that goal, the document specified that the organization would expand cooperation channels with at least 50 international organizations; set up a minimum of four international scientific and technological cooperation activities; maintain at least 50 foreign technology projects; obtain at least five cooperation intention agreements; and target 60 to 80 foreign technical experts for recruitment.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/leaked-documents-reveal-chinese-regimes-orders-to-steal-foreign-technologies_3619005.html?utm_source=newsnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2021-01-05-1

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/human-rights-group-exposes-chinas-network-secret-political-prisons

A new amendment to China’s defense law gives more control of the military to Beijing’s Central Military Commission (CMC), a defense body that oversees the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and is chaired by President Xi Jinping.

The amendment came into effect on January 1st and weakened the role of China’s State Council, the country’s cabinet, in formulating military policy. According to The South China Morning Post, the new legislation adds “disruption” and “development interests” as grounds for the deployment of troops.

Since CMC’s leadership is made up of China’s military brass, the new amendment gives more control of war powers to the PLA. Zeng Zhiping, a military law expert and former PLA colonel, explained to the Post how the new amendment works.

“The CMC is now formally in charge of making national defense policy and principles, while the State Council becomes a mere implementing agency to provide support to the military,” Zeng said.

He compared the new policy to other countries that have more civilian control over their militaries. “Even in the US, the civilian-led defense ministry plays a more important role than their military top brass, the joint chiefs of staff,” he said.

The new law could allow China’s PLA to deploy more quickly to confront the US, whose warships are frequently sailing in waters near China’s coast. In 2020, the US stepped up its military presence in the region by increasing US Navy transits of the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait. US military surveillance flights have also increased in the region.

https://news.antiwar.com/2021/01/04/chinas-new-defense-law-gives-military-more-control-of-war-powers/

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/marines-step-training-china-island-exercises-japans-mainland

https://nationalfile.com/caught-on-tape-brad-raffensperger-begged-for-illegal-chinese-votes/

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/alibaba-founder-jack-ma-has-been-missing-2-months

https://thefederalist.com/2016/07/19/5-times-mike-pence-helped-china-steal-american-jobs/

https://thenationalpulse.com/breaking/us-official-covid-man-made/

Flashpoints in Asia

Signs of a move to war between the US and China?

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States plans to sell as many as seven major weapons systems, including mines, cruise missiles and drones to Taiwan, four people familiar with the discussions said, as the Trump administration ramps up pressure on China.

Pursuing seven sales at once is a rare departure from years of precedent in which U.S. military sales to the island were spaced out and carefully calibrated to minimize tensions with Beijing.

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2020-09-16/exclusive-us-pushes-arms-sales-surge-to-fortress-taiwan-needling-china-sources

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — China's state-run media has announced that the autocratic country has fired a Long March rocket "over the skies of Taiwan Island, China."

According to a post uploaded to the Weibo page China航天 (China Aerospace) on Monday (Sept. 14), China planned to hold its second launch at sea at approximately 9:20 a.m. on Tuesday (Sept. 15). It stated that a Long March-11 HY2 would blast off from the Yellow Sea carrying nine Jilin-1 Gaofen-03 series remote sensing satellites into a 535-kilometer Sun-synchronous orbit.

The post stated that the rocket would use the "one arrow carries nine stars" method as the rocket "flies over the skies of Taiwan Island, China." The announcement also included a map of the rocket's trajectory, showing it launching from a position in the Yellow Sea and flying south directly over the heart of Taiwan proper before heading over the Bashi Channel, past the Philippines, over the South China Sea, and over the Malaysian state of Sabah, Indonesia's Kalimantan and East Java.

https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4009084

Beijing has reacted furiously to the US sending a senior diplomat to visit self-ruled Taiwan, which it sees as its territory, warning it will make a “necessary response”.

US undersecretary of state Keith Krach arrived in Taipei on Thursday afternoon and is the most senior State Department official to visit the island in 41 years. Beijing said the visit violated the US one-China policy and the “three communiques” that form the basis of US-China ties.

Adding to Beijing’s anger was a meeting the previous day between the US ambassador to the United Nations and Taiwan’s top envoy in New York.

Accompanied by Robert Destro, assistant secretary of state, and a small group of other officials, Krach arrived at Taipei’s military airport on a civilian plane rather than a US government aircraft as Alex Azar did a month ago. The visit by Azar, the health and human services secretary, also prompted a strong protest from Beijing.

Krach, the undersecretary for economic growth, energy and the environment, will attend a memorial service for former Taiwanese president Lee Teng-hui – known as the island’s “father of democracy” – on Saturday. He is also expected to meet President Tsai Ing-wen, Premier Su Tseng-chang and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu on Friday, according to the island’s foreign ministry.

The American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto US embassy in the absence of formal ties, confirmed Krach would attend the service. “The United States honours President Lee’s legacy by continuing our strong bonds with Taiwan and its vibrant democracy through shared political and economic values,” the AIT said in a statement.

Taiwanese media had reported that Krach would visit the island to lead the Washington team in a new US-Taiwan economic dialogue that was announced after Tsai agreed to lift a ban on American pork and beef. But there was no mention of trade talks in the AIT statement. And Foreign Minister Wu on Thursday said only that Krach would exchange views with senior Taiwanese economic officials and business leaders on what should be included in the dialogue.

Beijing called the trip provocative and threatened to retaliate.

“The Chinese side resolutely opposes any form of US-Taiwan official exchanges and this has remained our clear position,” mainland foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Thursday.

He said in sending Krach to Taiwan, the US had defied the one-China policy and the “three communiques” agreed by the two sides.

“The move has not only encouraged the separatist forces on the island, but also damaged Sino-US relations and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” Wang said. “China will make a necessary response in accordance with the development of the situation.”

Relations between Beijing and Washington have worsened over Taiwan, but also over the coronavirus pandemic, trade, human rights, the South China Sea and a host of other issues.

US ties with Taiwan have meanwhile been warming, and a New York lunch meeting a day before Krach’s visit is likely to have further enraged Beijing.

America’s ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft called her meeting with Taiwanese envoy James Lee “historic” and a further step in Washington’s campaign to strengthen relations with the island.

“I’m looking to do the right thing by my president, and I feel that he has sought to strengthen and deepen this bilateral relationship with Taiwan and I want to continue that on behalf of the administration,” she told Associated Press.

A US plan to sell as many as seven major weapons systems – including mines, cruise missiles and drones – to Taiwan, reported by Reuters on Wednesday, is expected to add to the tensions.

Albert Chiu Shih-yi, a political science professor at Tunghai University in Taichung, said Krach’s visit would be “more symbolic than having any practical substance”.

But combined with the New York meeting and the new arms sales, it could add insult to injury for Beijing at the height of US President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, he said.

“This could backfire,” Chiu said, adding that Taipei should tread carefully to avoid inflaming the situation.

Tensions are already running high. The night before Krach’s visit, two People’s Liberation Army warplanes approached Taiwan in yet another incursion signalling growing mainland hostility towards the island.

The PLA Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft briefly entered the southwest of the island’s air defence identification zone on Wednesday night and were warned off by Taiwan’s air force, the island’s defence ministry said on Thursday.

Last week, multiple fighter jets approached the same area in what Tsai called a serious provocation that would escalate cross-strait tensions and affect regional peace and stability.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3101878/china-greets-us-official-visit-taiwan-warplane-incursion

From the CCP organ

According to media reports from the island of Taiwan, US Undersecretary of State Keith Krach will arrive on the island on Thursday and host the "US-Taiwan Economic and Commercial Dialogue." Since US undersecretary of state is different from deputy officials from other US government departments, Krach's tour is considered by all parties on the island as more sensitive. They think Krach's visit is the latest manifestation of an upgrade in official relations between the US and the island of Taiwan. 

On Wednesday, Reuters reported the US is pushing a surge in arms sales to the island of Taiwan - Washington plans to sell "seven weapons systems, including mines, cruise missiles and drones" at once.

The US and the island of Taiwan continue to adopt the "salami tactics" to expand the space for their ties, increasing US arms sales to the island, and attempting to force the Chinese mainland to swallow such a trend. They keep throwing stones into the water of the Taiwan Straits. But once they go too far, the stones may become torpedoes, increasing the uncertainties in the entire region, as well as the risks of drastic changes in the Taiwan Straits.

A strategic game of the century between China and the US is being shaped. This is a reality every country and every force in the Asia-Pacific region have to face. Among all regional forces, the Taiwan authorities are the most stupid. Smart ones would go after profit and avoid harm, seeking to butter their bread on both sides in the China-US game. But the Taiwan authorities are destroying their strategic maneuvering ability by completely siding with the US, turning itself into a pawn and a punching bag of the US, bearing the growing risk of an outbreak of a military conflict in the Taiwan Straits. 

The Taiwan authorities often brag about "freedom and democracy" in the island, which are self-comforting empty slogans. The Taiwan authorities have no politically reliable strategic plans. They have no idea what Taiwan's future will be like, and cannot predict what strategic resources Taiwan's "freedom and democracy" could bring to the island to confront the mainland. 

Could Taiwan become a sovereign state? Such a goal is as illusory as Taiwan could one day drift to the side of the US. The Taiwan authorities are clear that the best-case scenario is to maintain the status quo. Their de-Sinicization campaigns in the island and pursuit of US support are self-entertaining tricks that serve their ambitions. But from a historical point of view, those are nothing but bubbles.

The authorities of Democratic Progressive Party throwing themselves into the lap of the US will lead to a deformed political mentality and security value within the island, narrowing the path the island can take. No surrounding countries and regions will take US protection as a lifeline as much as the island of Taiwan does, nor will they act beyond their abilities to engage in a confrontation with the Chinese mainland. Taiwan will become an exception in the region. It will be anxious for gains and losses in the long run, and plagued by imaginary fears. 

Fully relying on the US will make the island of Taiwan subject to the willful exploitation of the US. The Tsai Ing-wen authorities lifted import restrictions on US pork and beef as a reward for the visit of US health and human services secretary Alex Azar. Many people wonder how Taiwan will be taken advantage of from Krach's trip. US is increasing its arms sale to Taiwan, it that a part of the deal? Once the People's Liberation Army dispatches troops to reunify the island of Taiwan, the military equipment from the US will be nothing but decorations. The arms sales to Taiwan are a mechanism for Washington to blackmail the island. 

International law clearly states that Taiwan is not a country. The US and the island of Taiwan are attempting to upgrade their official ties, and the island is trying to receive greater "country-level treatment" from the US. This constitutes the biggest change to the status quo in the Taiwan Straits, and a continuing source of tensions in the region. The further the US and Taiwan island go in this direction, the more likely the situation in the Taiwan Straits will spiral out of control. Taiwan will suffer the most. Promoting relations with the US is nothing but a way to quench its thirst by drinking poison.

The Taiwan authorities are putting the security and well-being of people on the island in jeopardy. They are leading the island into a blind alley. An increasing number of people are worried that the Taiwan Straits will be the most likely powder keg in the China-US competition. People on the island will be plunged into misery. If that day comes, Taiwan authorities will be an unforgivable sinner for both the island and the rest of China.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1201147.shtml

The US provided “strong and unambiguous support” to India during its current border crisis with China, which is engaged in increasingly aggressive behaviour throughout the Indo-Pacific even during the coronavirus pandemic, a senior White House official said on Thursday. From a bilateral perspective China’s recent actions on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India has further reinforced the importance of the US-India strategic partnership, Lisa Curtis, the deputy assistant to President Donald Trump, said in a virtual panel discussion organised by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think-tank.

“Whether it was cutting off Vietnam’s access to its fishing waters, undermining Hong Kong self-rule, deploying military submarines to threaten Japan or contesting Indian territorial sovereignty along the LAC, Beijing has engaged in increasingly aggressive behaviour throughout the Indo-Pacific, even as the global community has grappled with coronavirus pandemic,” Curtis said.

The crisis has strengthened America’s resolve to work towards building its relationship with India as a bulwark against Chinese aggression, she said during the discussion on research scholar Darshana Baruah’s recently released paper, “India in the Indo-Pacific: New Delhi’s Theater of Opportunity”.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/india-s-strong-approach-towards-chinese-aggression-encouraging-white-house-official/story-0LIINKtV9927LscGe20apO.html