China Sends Planes After U.S. Transit Through Taiwan Strait

TaiwanPlus News

China has flown 41 military aircraft near Taiwan, as President Lai Ching-te visits the outlying islands of Kinmen and just a day after a U.S. warship passed through the Taiwan Strait.

Transcript

00:00Now, Ben, I want to start off with this number, it's 41 Chinese military aircraft operating

00:05around Taiwan, and 32 of them were spotted in the ADIZ, which is a little bit closer

00:09to Taiwan.

00:10Is that number significant?

00:11Is that a high number of planes?

00:13Well, I think it is significant for one, the number we're talking about is well above average,

00:1832 should be considered a kind of a major incursion into the ADIZ.

00:23And it comes kind of in the face of one President Lai's visit to Jinmen for the anniversary

00:28of the A23 artillery battle, the second Taiwan Strait crisis.

00:33And it also comes immediately following a U.S. warship transiting the Taiwan Strait.

00:39But it kind of in the broader scheme of things, in the last three and a half months, since

00:43President Lai took office, there's been an unprecedented surge in Chinese military activity

00:47around Taiwan.

00:49So we have now surpassed the yearly record for the number of Chinese aircraft tracked

00:55inside the ADIZ, that was 1,738 in 2022.

01:00With tonight's report, we're up to over 1,770.

01:04So we've blown past that record, and it looks like we're not going to stop anytime soon.

01:09You also mentioned this U.S. warship transit in the Taiwan Strait.

01:13What was the United States trying to signal to China with this operation?

01:17And why was China upset with this?

01:20Well, all Taiwan Strait transits are intended to signal the same thing, whether U.S. ships

01:24or U.S. and allies and partners or just other states in general, which we've seen this year.

01:29And that's the Taiwan Strait is international waters at the end of the day.

01:33And all states have the right to transit through international waters.

01:37Now China doesn't feel that way.

01:38China views that the Taiwan Strait is an internal body of water for China because they claim

01:44Taiwan as part of the People's Republic of China.

01:48And so it is viewed as inherently escalatory when the U.S. sends ships to the Taiwan Strait.

01:53But in all reality, under international law, it's a completely justifiable thing to do.

01:58Looking at the press release from the United States Navy, they mentioned the word high

02:01seas and that they were transiting in a corridor within the Taiwan Strait.

02:06Usually they use language like international waters.

02:09Is there a difference between that high seas and international waters?

02:13And why is the United States playing around with that wording?

02:15Well, I think it's important to note that the U.S., in addition to saying high seas,

02:18also specified that the area that they move their ship through is beyond the territorial

02:23waters of any coastal state.

02:25But the use of high seas is, you know, nothing really major.

02:29It just reflects a more close alignment with the actual language in the U.N. Convention

02:34of the Law on the Sea.

02:35The reality is China has sent over a thousand planes around Taiwan within a few dozen miles

02:40of Taiwan in the last three and a half months.

02:43And it's the new normal.

02:47China is very good at creating those.

02:48And so, you know, as in Washington, in Taipei, all over the world, what we have to recognize

02:53is that when these things develop in the way that ADA's activity has developed in the last

02:59four years, when we don't take action to prevent this escalation, we're setting ourselves up

03:06for whatever that unknown is.

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