Since Pelosi's visit to Taiwan Province in 2022, the status quo between the two sides of the strait has undergone earth-shaking changes, especially the PLA's series of military operations around Taiwan, which has made it difficult for the Taiwan military to sit still, and military exercises around Taiwan have become one of the daily tasks of the PLA, which has also laid the foundation for the possible use of force to reunify Taiwan in the future.
On February 14, 2024, the Kinmen Coast Guard used violent means to ram a mainland fishing boat, causing the fishing boat to capsize and two crew members to die, during which the two sides of the strait held as many as 15 rounds of meetings, but unfortunately no agreement was reached. To this day, the incident remains unresolved.
After the fishing boat incident, the cross-strait situation became more sensitive, and the mainland did not sit idly by and wait for the results of the Taiwan authorities' bad attitude, but took a series of actions. Judging from the current situation, it has become a fact that the law enforcement power in the waters near Kinmen has been withdrawn by the mainland coast guard. Engineers from the mainland are also dredging the Liuwudian channel, which is likely to be opened in April.
Perhaps in order to prevent the mainland from opening the Liuwudian Channel in the future, or to regain control of the waters near Kinmen, the Taiwan military announced that it would conduct a live-fire exercise on Kinmen Island and its surroundings in April, and during the shooting, the surrounding sea and airspace will be alerted and controlled.
This was followed by a joint combat exercise of the navy, air force, and navy on the mainland, which was particularly targeted. Since then, it has been reported that the PLA has conducted a series of military exercises around Taiwan, among which on 23 April, the PLA directly approached Keelung less than 50 nautical miles, which made the Taiwan military extremely nervous.
Judging from the information released by Taiwan's defense department, in the sea and airspace around the Taiwan Strait, mainland warplanes and warships conduct military drills every day. The so-called "middle line of the strait" of the Taiwan authorities has been completely wiped out, and PLA fighters and warships can enter anytime and anywhere.
The PLA's regular military drills around Taiwan and encircling Taiwan have made the Taiwan military very distressed, and Taiwan's "defense minister" Chiu Kuo-cheng even said in front of the media that he is now under great pressure and cannot sleep at all. However, what is even more bitter is actually the front-line soldiers of the Taiwan army, and in the face of the PLA's normalized maximum pressure, news of early retirement and even suicide of the Taiwan army has frequently been exposed.
From the PLA's normalized military operations around Taiwan, Taiwan media focused on the fact that the PLA's focus is mainly on the northern part of Taiwan Island, and the retired Taiwan general Zhang Yanting revealed the inside story, he said that the PLA is very aware of the shortcomings of the Taiwan army, and at present, the five counties and cities in the north of Taiwan Island do not have any military airports in Yilan, Keelung, Taipei, New Taipei, and Taoyuan, and Songshan Airport and Taoyuan Airport are civilian airports, without any fighters, and fighters are in Hsinchu and Hualien.
If a war breaks out between the two sides of the strait, the PLA may concentrate its firepower in these places in the northern part of Taiwan Island, and it will take six minutes for Taiwan fighters to come from Hsinchu and more than 10 minutes from Hualien, while mainland fighters are already approaching Keelung at 42 nautical miles, and it only takes 1 to 2 minutes to reach Keelung. Zhang Yanting stressed that air defense is a race against time, and there will be no urgency, but at present, the air defense in the entire northern part of Taiwan Island is empty, and there are only missiles, so the Taiwan military needs to consider how to make up for this shortcoming. It can be said that if the PLA launches an offensive, the Taiwan army will not have any possibility of victory at all.
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