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Overnight, Reuters reported that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken assured the Philippines that the US would come to its defense if attacked in the South China Sea.
On a visit to Manila that has been dominated by tensions over Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan and subsequent Chinese military exercises around the disputed territory, Blinken said the defense pact with the Philippines was “resilient.”
“An armed attack on Philippine armed forces, public vessels and aircraft will invoke US mutual defense commitments. The Philippines is an irreplaceable friend, partner and ally of the United States,” Blinken told a news conference.
Taiwan’s official Central News Agency has reported that Taiwan’s military will conduct live-fire artillery drills in southern Pingtung County on Tuesday and Thursday in response to Chinese exercises.
The Associated Press reports that the exercises will include snipers, combat vehicles, armored vehicles and attack helicopters, according to the report, which cites an unnamed source.
Both Taiwan and China have released compilations of video clips of what they say are their forces in action during the drills on social media this morning.
Global Times, Chinese state media, released nearly two minutes of video that it claims shows “100 deployed warplanes,” a new in-flight refueling capability and navy ships conducting a joint blockade exercise.
Images of #PLA drills around Taiwan Island. Highlights included the deployment of more than 100 warplanes, the unveiling of China’s new generation YU-20 aerial refueler, and more than ten destroyers and frigates conducting a joint blockade exercise. pic.twitter.com/UNtWohVn82
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) August 7, 2022
Taiwan’s defense ministry released a video aimed at the territory’s Father’s Day tomorrow, lamenting that “service members are busy with their work instead of being with their families.” The video ended with the message “Thank you to all the soldiers on the front lines.”
Our father’s day is August 8 and the situation this year makes the day special, because our services are busy with their work instead of being with their families. To protect people’s daily lives, we guard the border while there are threats. pic.twitter.com/avkP3P7nzd
— Ministry of National Defense, ROC 🇹🇼 (@MoNDefense) August 7, 2022
China to hold ‘regular’ drills on east side of middle line – state media commentator
China’s military will from now on conduct “regular” drills on the eastern side of the middle line of the Taiwan Strait, Chinese state television reported on Sunday, citing a commentator.
The median line in the strait between the island of Taiwan and mainland China is an unofficial line of control that is not normally crossed by military aircraft and battleships from either side.
Reuters reports that the state television commentator said the median line has never been legally recognized and is an “imaginary” line drawn up by the US military for its combat requirements in the previous century.
Taiwan’s defense ministry has released another photo, which it says shows its forces rehearsing missile loading.
Handout image of Taiwan Navy soldiers rehearsing at an undisclosed location. Photo: Taiwan Military News Agency/Reuters
Reuters reports that Taiwan said its ground-based anti-ship missiles and Patriot surface-to-air missiles were on standby. The defense ministry said its F-16 fighter jets were flying advanced anti-aircraft missiles. It also used Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets.
A Taiwan Air Force Mirage 2000-5 fighter jet approaches an air base for landing in Hsinchu, Taiwan. Photograph: Ritchie B Tongo/EPA
David Smith in Washington offers an analysis for the Guardian this morning, writing:
It was perhaps telling that US President Joe Biden and Democrats remained mostly silent, while Nancy Pelosi’s loudest cheerleaders were right-wing Republicans and China hawks, including Newt Gingrich.
Some commentators believe that one day a superpower conflict between America and China over Taiwan or another issue is inevitable. White Pelosi may have shaved a few years off that forecast, it could be argued that Biden himself has supplied some of the canvas.
For months, the president has cast doubt on America’s commitment to the “One China” policy, under which the US recognizes formal ties with China rather than Taiwan. In May, when asked if the US would get involved militarily to defend Taiwan, he responded forcefully: “Yes. This is the commitment we made.”
Although America is required by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, it has never directly pledged to intervene militarily in a conflict with China. This delicate balance has helped deter Taiwan from declaring full independence and China from invading. But some worry that Biden is replacing that longstanding position of “strategic ambiguity” with “strategic confusion.”
You can read more of David Smith’s analysis from Washington here: Pelosi’s ‘reckless’ visit to Taiwan deepens US-China rift: Why did she go there?
Bonnie Glaser, director of the Asia program at the US-based German Marshall Fund think tank, told AFP that Taiwan might have to get used to such exercises. The quote saying:
I think prolonged tensions are unlikely. But a major crisis would certainly affect shipping, insurance rates, trade routes and supply chains.
It will become the norm to have exercises close to the main island of Taiwan itself. This time it has set a new precedent that the People’s Liberation Army will carry out drills of this type.
We are seeing the bar raised to another level for future exercises of this scale and intensity.”
He said that while China had regularly probed Taiwan’s defenses, Nancy Pelosi’s visit had “given them the excuse or the justification to say that in the future they will only legitimately conduct exercises east of the median line without having to consider them at all.”
China’s live-fire drills around Taiwan, which saw ships circle the democratically-ruled island, have offered an unprecedented glimpse of how Beijing can wage a military campaign against its neighbour, reports the AFP.
Beijing has also imposed economic sanctions and stepped up efforts to isolate Taiwan on the international stage, in a move that experts say will permanently alter the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.
China’s military has conducted exercises on Taiwan’s eastern flank, an area strategically vital for supplies to the island’s military forces as well as any potential US reinforcements, for the first time.
This has sent an ominous signal that Beijing can now blockade the entire island and could prevent any entry or exit of commercial or military ships and aircraft.
Analysts have long speculated that this will be one of China’s preferred strategies in the event of a war to conquer Taiwan.
Ed Moon is a reporter for TaiwanPlus, and today he writes about the reaction to the Taiwanese island of Kinmen:
Tourism is one of the biggest industries in Kinmen, also known as Quemoy. Old military sites, relics of when the islands were the front line of the cold war between China and Taiwan, litter the landscape. The giant loudspeakers on the shore that once broadcast across the sea now play soft music.
On August 23, 1958, the Chinese military, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), launched a fierce artillery bombardment of Kinmen that continued, to some extent, for more than 20 years. Many people in Kinmen clearly remember living under constant shelling, a fact that sets the people of Kinmen apart from most Taiwanese.
“Everyone who lived here has friends and relatives who were killed. We had to dig our own bomb shelters. If you didn’t, there was nowhere to hide when the shells fell,” says Wu Tseng-dong.
This legacy and divergent histories (unlike Taiwan proper, Kinmen has been for hundreds of years completely under Chinese rule in one form or another) means that few in Kinmen would even refer to themselves as “Taiwanese”. They are happy to be part of the Republic of China, the official name of Taiwan, and see no need to declare a separate, independent country.
Read more about Ed Moon’s report here: ‘All we can hope for is peace’: The view from Kinmen, once the front line of the China-Taiwan Cold War
Taiwan’s military has released some images of how its service personnel responded to China’s military exercises.
A Taiwanese Navy soldier monitors Chinese activity at an undisclosed location in this image released on Aug. 7. Photo: Taiwan Military News Agency/Reuters A Taiwanese navy soldier rehearses a missile loading operation at an undisclosed location in this image released on Aug. 7. Photo: Taiwan Military News Agency/Reuters
Summary of the day so far…
It’s 3.30pm in Taiwan, and here’s a rundown of the latest situation.
- China resumed military exercises and drills around Taiwan on Sunday. The four-day show of military force had been a response to US politician Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the disputed territory earlier in the week.
- Taiwan’s defense ministry previously said it has dispatched aircraft and ships to react “appropriately” to Chinese military exercises on the island.
- China’s navigation warnings and NOTAMs for military exercises in Taiwan have expired, except in one area, and China did not expand those exercises as some had previously thought.
- Taiwan’s transport ministry said flights in its airspace had gradually resumed by midday on Sunday as most notifications of Chinese military exercises near the island were “no longer in effect”. .
- Taiwan Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), which sets the policy…