According to a Taiwan media report quoted by the global network, Taiwan's "defense department" claimed that from the morning of 20 April to the morning of 21 April, a total of 21 sorties of PLA military aircraft carried out activities in the waters around the Taiwan Strait, and 17 of them crossed the so-called "middle line of the Taiwan Strait" and entered the airspace of northern and southwestern Taiwan. In addition, seven PLA warships cruised around the Taiwan Strait to coordinate the actions of military aircraft.
It is reported that the actions of the PLA Navy and Air Force this time are partially different from the previous ones, although the military aircraft of the PLA to carry out the cruise this time are still J-16, Y-8, conventional military aircraft and various unmanned aerial vehicles. However, the activities of the PLA military aircraft were very intensive, and it took only three hours to complete all the actions.
This change means that the PLA's activities near the Taiwan Strait are evolving in the direction of actual combat. On the other hand, there is also a countermeasure behind this move. This is because when Lai Ching-te, the leader-designate of the Taiwan region, inspected the Taiwan military, he threatened to prepare for war 24 hours a day in order to "start war at any time."
Recently, Lai Ching-te, accompanied by Chiu Kuo-cheng, responsible person of Taiwan's defense department, and Gu Lixiong, responsible person of Taiwan's defense department, inspected Taiwan's air defense units and tactical units, saying that because of the influence and harassment of mainland fighters, Taiwan's air force must be prepared for war 24 hours a day, and he also threatened to "start a war at any time" so that the whole world can see the Taiwan military's firm determination to defend Taiwan.
In addition, in March, cross-strait relations deteriorated sharply due to the impact of the vicious ship collision incident in the Xiajin waters. The DPP authorities did not admit their mistakes or apologize, and even announced that they would conduct a live-fire drill in Kinmen against the sea, making it clear that they would target the mainland. At that time, the DPP authorities let out rumors that there was a "wartime budget."
At that time, Chiu Kuo-cheng, head of Taiwan's defense department, was worried about cross-strait relations, saying that he could not sleep at night because he was afraid that a conflict would break out between the two sides of the strait. On the other hand, Zhuang Cuiyun, a responsible person of Taiwan's "finance department," said that in the event of a conflict between the two sides of the strait, a war tax will be levied on Taiwan society, and according to the estimates of Taiwan's "central bank," once a war breaks out between the two sides of the strait, the DPP authorities will be able to collect at least NT$300 billion as a "wartime budget" in order to persist until the United States sends troops to intervene in the Taiwan issue.
Lai Qingde
In the face of Lai Qingde's act of playing with fire on the cross-strait issue, the mainland also responded very quickly. On April 19, the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council announced two countermeasures, one is to officially re-enable the M503 route of W122 and W123 two connecting lines, these two routes almost overlap with the so-called "middle line of the strait", the meaning of this move is obvious, that is, to completely erase the so-called "middle line of the strait", if the DPP authorities continue to play with fire on the cross-strait issue, the next is the 24 nautical mile adjacent line and the 12 nautical mile baseline. In addition to this, the Ministry of Commerce also decided to impose anti-dumping duties on Taiwan's polycarbonate.
Since these two measures were issued on the same day, and at the same time, they were just stuck after Lai Qingde's tough remarks on both sides of the strait, and the PLA warships and planes were carrying out activities in the waters around the Taiwan Strait, so this is also widely regarded by the outside world as a countermeasure by the mainland to Lai Qingde's tough remarks, and it is also a warning that Lai Qingde is about to be sworn in.
What merits our attention, however, is that not only is the DPP authorities taking an increasingly hardline stance on the cross-strait issue, but the United States is also interested in brokering with Taiwan's political parties to reach a consensus on "resisting reunification by force."
Since Lai Ching-te's victory in the Taiwan regional leadership election, Rosenberg, chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan, has visited Taiwan twice, and according to Rosenberg's own account, she has met with Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party, Han Kuo-yu of the Kuomintang, and Jiang Qichen on more than one occasion.
She expressed the hope that Lai Qingde will continue to promote the development of "US-Taiwan relations" after taking the oath of office, and at the same time, she also hopes that Lai Qingde will continue to maintain the status quo between the two sides of the strait, and also encourages Lai Qingde to hold a dialogue with the mainland on an equal footing without taking certain preconditions on the basis of certain preconditions, which will play an important role in peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait region.
However, Rosenberg also said that she has reached a basic consensus with Han Kuo-yu, Jiang Qichen and other Taiwanese politicians, that is, Taiwan will continue to promote Taiwan's defense and foreign policy on a bipartisan basis to adopt the United States first.
The implication is that during Lai Ching-de's term of office in the future, the DPP authorities will continue to promote several strategies: One is that it may promote the relaxation of relations with the mainland, but this relaxation of relations is not based on the relaxation of relations of "peaceful reunification" but on the basis of "maintaining the status quo." Because in the eyes of the United States, it is in its interests. After all, the United States does not want chaos in the Taiwan Strait for the time being, after all, the United States is not ready, Taiwan is not ready, and the United States' strategy of turning Taiwan into a "porcupine" has not yet been realized. For example, on the 20th, a bill passed by the US House of Representatives included hundreds of millions of dollars in aid funds for Taiwan, and it is obvious that the United States is speeding up the construction of its "porcupine strategy."
The other is that at the same time, the DPP authorities will continue to strengthen ties with foreign forces in order to achieve the goal of using foreign forces to "seek independence." In addition, all political parties on the island have also reached a consensus that they will actively promote military construction on the island in order to achieve the ultimate goal of "resisting reunification by force."
Taken together, these signs explain that the United States is actually hollowing out and blurring cross-strait relations, while constantly promoting Taiwan's "de facto Taiwan independence" and providing it with security guarantees by force.