The US and its allies could break a Chinese blockade of Taiwan, US Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy has “the number of vessels and the capability at sea to execute a blockade,” he told a news conference marking US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s visit to Hawaii on Saturday, Nikkei Asia reported.
“The question that follows is: ‘Do the allies have the capability to break that blockade?’ And the answer to that is a resounding yes,” he said.
Photo: Reuters
The US military alone could defeat a Chinese blockade with its volume of firepower and “superiority in key domains,” he said, likely referring to nuclear submarines and other undersea forces.
However, an unnamed US official told Nikkei that Beijing could use means other than naval forces to effectively blockade Taiwan.
Citing Beijing’s military exercises in August, the official said China fired 11 ballistic missiles into designated exercise areas in the waters off the ports of Taipei and Kaohsiung, causing disruptions to maritime and air traffic.
“That’s a pretty significant impact on normal activities,” the official said, underscoring the missile threat to Taiwan’s aerial and marine lines of communication.
“You could essentially blockade Taiwan’s access, through the repeated imposition of these kinds of closure areas, legally, safely and in a way that would be extraordinarily difficult, either for Taiwan or the US, to challenge and to counter,” they said.
A senior Taiwanese official was cited by Nikkei as saying that the nation would not bow to Beijing’s pressure.
“The Chinese pressure campaign, coercion campaign, has proven to be counterproductive,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“These coercive measures not only strengthen our people’s determination, our will, to defend our own democracy, but also rally international support to Taiwan,” they said.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
STORM’S PATH: Kong-Rey could be the first typhoon to make landfall in Taiwan in November since Gilda in 1967. Taitung-Green Island ferry services have been halted Tropical Storm Kong-rey is forecast to strengthen into a typhoon early today and could make landfall in Taitung County between late Thursday and early Friday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, Kong-Rey was 1,030km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the nation’s southernmost point, and was moving west at 7kph. The tropical storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 101kph, with gusts of up to 126 kph, CWA data showed. After landing in Taitung, the eye of the storm is forecast to move into the Taiwan Strait through central Taiwan on Friday morning, the agency said. With the storm moving
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
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