Deterrence is fading; war is looming on the Taiwan Strait and for other targets of the China-enabled dictatorship alliance, and after three years the cure is just dawning on the Biden Administration. Now mind you, for a May 28, 2024 interview with Time magazine, President Joe Biden made his 5th public commitment that the United States would defend Taiwan. Less than three weeks later the United States Navy, along with ships from navies of Japan, Canada, the Netherlands, and France, were conducting the Valiant Shield joint force exercise in the Philippine Sea south of Taiwan and in the South China Sea to
While the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) consistently sends drones to harass military bases in Taiwan’s outlying islands and along the coastline, new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo told the Washington Post that the US military would implement a “Hellscape” strategy involving thousands of uncrewed systems to deter a Chinese invasion. Josh Rogin, who authored the article which was published on Monday last week, spoke to Paparo on the sidelines of the recent Shangri-La Dialogue defense forum in Singapore. Paparo told him that as soon as China’s invasion force began to move across the 180km Taiwan Strait, the US military
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has once again resorted to its age-old tactic of blaming the US for China’s woes. The Financial Times on Sunday reported that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) told European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that China would not invade Taiwan because it was a trap set by the US. This is not just an attempt to deflect blame, but also a textbook example of the CCP’s “divide and conquer” strategy to sow discord between Europe and the US. However, the blame game reveals deeper problems. Xi’s power rests on the support of the Chinese People’s Liberation
The official media of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) reacted to the May 20 inauguration speech of President William Lai (賴清德) by asserting: “Lai’s words reveal his true intention of sacrificing peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait for his own desire for power.” This baseless accusation by Beijing that Lai is manipulating Taiwanese to resist unification with China for his personal gain, is part of a broader CCP information warfare campaign that has intensified since Lai’s election. This campaign, orchestrated by the United Front Work Department, the CCP’s agency for coordinating influence operations and propaganda, aims to demoralize Taiwanese,