The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on Wednesday sent its aircraft carrier Shandong to pass through the Bashi Channel and appear on the southeastern side of Taiwan, in a foretaste of China’s threatened retaliation against the United States and Taiwan over a historic meeting between Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California on Wednesday.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned the Tsai-McCarthy meeting. It warned that China will take resolute and forceful measures to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The meeting has made McCarthy the highest-ranking US official to meet a Taiwanese president on American soil since Washington established diplomatic relations with Beijing in 1979.
Last August, the PLA launched a three-day military exercise at six locations surrounding Taiwan after then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met Tsai in Taipei. Over the past month, Beijing has repeatedly threatened to heighten its military actions in the Taiwan Strait if McCarthy should meet Tsai. Despite those threats, the meeting occurred as Tsai transited in the US during her return trip from South America to Taiwan.
PLA’s display
“We urge the US to honor its solemn political commitments to China on the Taiwan issue, stop grossly interfering in China’s internal affairs and stop US-Taiwan official exchanges and the enhancement of the substantive US-Taiwan relations, and stop weakening and hollowing out the one-China principle,” an unnamed spokesperson of China’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement on Thursday.
The defense ministry also said it will maintain a high level of alert at all times and resolutely maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
On Wednesday, Haixun 06, or Sea Patrol 06, a Chinese rescue vessel, was sent to the Taiwan Strait for a joint patrol operation. It is the most advanced ship operated by the Fujian Maritime Safety Administration. It is tasked with monitoring maritime traffic, conducting law enforcement, responding to emergencies and searching for and rescuing ships and crew. It is also capable of handling pollution and extinguishing fires.
Last Friday, the PLA sent at least nine aircraft to fly across the midline of the Taiwan Strait.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense said it is closely monitoring the PLA’s actions. It said a total of 1,872 Chinese military aircraft flew into the island’s air-defense identification zone (ADIZ) between March 1 last year and March 27 this year.
It said since mid-2022, the PLA’s air operations have been showing a more diverse range of operations. The Taiwan ministry said at least 171 special-missions aircraft or unmanned aerial vehicles had flown along 81 unusual flight paths – a reference to the southern and southeastern sides of Taiwan.
Views from the punditocracy
A Zhejiang-based writer says the newly-launched joint patrol operation in the central and Northern parts of the Taiwan Strait is a curtain raiser for China’s full-scale retaliation against the US and Taiwan for the Tsai-McCarthy meeting.
He says the operation shows that the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command has already raised the level of military exercises and will have the ability to intercept or shoot down Tsai’s plane.
When Pelosi began her trip to Taiwan last August, several Chinese pundits said the PLA would identify and intercept her plane, which was supposed to fly from Kuala Lumpur to Taipei via the South China Sea. However, Pelosi’s plane took a special route and entered Taiwan from its southeast side.
Who said what
The Chinese government condemned the US for allowing McCarthy to meet with Tsai, saying that the meeting seriously violated the “One China” policy, undermined China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and sent a wrong signal to the Taiwan independence forces.
Indeed, she did not mince words during the meeting. “It is no secret that today the peace we have maintained and the democracy which we have worked hard to build are facing unprecedented challenges,” Tsai told McCarthy. “In our efforts to protect our way of life, Taiwan is grateful to have the US by our side.”
“The friendship between the people of Taiwan and America is a matter of profound importance to the free world,” McCarthy said. “I am optimistic we will continue to find ways for the people of America and Taiwan to work together to promote economic freedom, democracy, peace and stability.”
He told Bloomberg TV after the meeting that “China cannot dictate who a speaker of the House can meet with, either foe or friend.”
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs complained that “McCarthy, the third-ranking figure in the US government and speaker of the House of Representatives, provided Tsai a podium to spread her ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist speeches.”
The ministry said that “the US and Taiwan have colluded with each other, and under the guise of ‘transit,’ by allowing Taiwan separatists to engage in political activities in the US, carry out official exchanges between the US and Taiwan and enhance the substantive relationship between the US and Taiwan.”
It added: “The Taiwan issue is the core of China’s most important interests and the first red line in Sino-US relations that cannot be crossed. Taiwan independence is incompatible with cross-strait peace and stability, and it is a dead end.”
Taiwan presidential campaigning
Meanwhile, former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou and Shanghai Communist Party Secretary Chen Jining met in Shanghai on Wednesday. Chen has been the most senior Chinese official that Ma could meet during his mainland trip so far.
Some commentators said Beijing will continue to show friendly gestures to those who support the peaceful reunification of Taiwan and mainland China but will intensify countermeasures against those who push forward Taiwan’s independence.
Political commentator Yau Ching-yuen’s YouTube channel on Thursday carried his prediction that Beijing will continue to show a tough stance against the Democratic Progress Party (DPP), the ruling party in Taiwan, while being nice to Kuomintang as it prefers for the latter to win the Taiwanese presidential elections in January 2024.
Yau says by arranging the Ma-Chen meeting in Shanghai, Beijing wanted to tell the Taiwanese people that Kuomintang can help ensure peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. He says Beijing would prefer that billionaire Terry Guo, a big investor in the mainland, become Taiwan’s next top leader rather than New Taipei Mayor Hou You-yi.
On Wednesday, Guo, founder of Foxconn, the world’s biggest iPhone maker, cut short his 12-day US trip and returned to Taipei. He immediately held a press conference and announced his plan to run for the 2024 presidential elections.
During the event, he apologized for quitting Kuomintang four years ago. He said he will rejoin the party and run for its primary elections. He said if he loses in the polls, he will fully support Hou.
“We must honestly tell our young people that voting for the DPP, which promotes Taiwan independence and anti-China initiatives, is dangerous and contrary to their interests,” Guo said. “Peaceful days should not be taken for granted.”
Kuomintang said its Central Standing Committee, instead of all members, will choose a presidential candidate by June 18. It said the party will not disclose the results of polls that it will conduct.
Read: Foxconn’s Guo shakes up Taiwan’s presidential race
Follow Jeff Pao on Twitter at @jeffpao3