Japan PM says enemy base strike capabilities option to boost defense PLA Eastern Theater Command conducts patrol with combat readiness in Taiwan Straits as US congressional delegation visits island AIT director slams Beijing's military aggression, calls for dialogue 11 countries voice support for Taiwan's participation in Interpol Why wiping out Hong Kong's opposition may have cost China a whole generation in Taiwan China accuses Australian PM's comments about Chinese intelligence ship as "neither factual nor moral" Russia begins serial production of Tsirkon hypersonic missiles for Navy - source Russian Navy missile ship holds artillery practice as US warship enters Black Sea France bans flights from southern Africa for 48 hours over new COVID variant Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Saturday that Japan will strengthen its necessary defense power and consider all options including the acquisition of enemy base strike capabilities. In a speech at a Ground Self-Defense Force base, Kishida expressed concern about North Korea's rapid development of missile technology and China's military expansion. When Japan revises its foreign and security policies, Kishida said all options will be on the table including the idea of giving the Self-Defense Forces the capability to strike at hostile enemy bases.
The idea of Japan possessing such an attack capability is delicate as the SDF has strict restrictions on its use of force under the war-renouncing Constitution. He also said China continues to strengthen its military "without sufficient transparency" and is making "unilateral attempts to change the status quo." He warned that development of new technologies by the North, including hypersonic glide vehicles and missiles flying on irregular trajectories, should not be overlooked. Japan's Self-Defense Forces currently predict trajectories based on radar readings of launch angle and speed. The missiles are then met with a two-tier defense system: the sea-based Aegis missile shield while outside the atmosphere, followed by Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles as they reenter.
Kishida added the security environment surrounding Japan is changing more significantly than ever. He has instructed the government to revise its national security strategy, defense program guidelines and mid-term defense program. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command has continued organizing naval and air forces to patrol with combat readiness in the Taiwan Straits, and such actions are necessary in response to the cross-Straits situation, Senior Colonel Shi Yi, spokesperson for the PLA Eastern Theater Command, said on Friday. On the same day, a US congressional delegation is in the island of Taiwan for a visit, the second such delegation in November. The PLA Eastern Theater Command's action on Friday is apparently targeting the US' interference in the Taiwan question, analysts said. The PLA Eastern Theater Command conducted similar patrols in response to a group of US congressmen's visit to the island of Taiwan on November 9 American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Taipei Office Director Sandra Oudkirk took a hard line on China during a keynote speech Friday, criticizing Beijing's military aggression and its attempts to isolate Taiwan internationally. Oudkirk said the U.S. remained committed to supporting Taiwan's development of a self-defense capability, adding that there was an "active dialogue with security forces" in Taiwan.
Outwith military aggression, the People's Republic of China (PRC) has also exerted diplomatic and economic pressure on Taiwan, Oudkirk said. "Continued efforts by Beijing to choke Taiwan's international space, pressure its friends, and interfere in Taiwan's democratic system represent a threat to all democracies," she said, adding that the U.S. would "support Taiwan as it resists the PRC's efforts to constrain its appropriate participation on the world stage." Taiwan's meaningful participation in U.N. bodies and other international organizations is not a political issue, but a pragmatic one, Oudkirk said. She also said Taiwan played a critical role in global supply chains and the semiconductors sector, adding that the U.S. would continue to work with the island to ensure these supply chains remained safe and secure. In just five years, Lin Fei-fan went from charging into Taiwan's legislature and occupying the building with hundreds of students to a senior job for the island's ruling party.
But his story could have been very different if he lived in Hong Kong, where student activists once brought the financial hub to a standstill as they took to the streets to demand democracy and freedoms. "If I were in Hong Kong, I think I'll probably be in jail," said Lin, the 33-year-old deputy secretary-general of Taiwan's governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). The recent events in Hong Kong have given Lin greater determination to defend Taiwan's sovereignty, he said -- and he is not alone. As authorities in Hong Kong arrested pro-democracy supporters, including opposition politicians and newspaper editors, a growing number of people in Taiwan have reflected upon the island's future relationship with mainland China. Since the Hong Kong protests broke out in 2019, more than 32% of respondents in Taiwan preferred a move toward formal "independence" -- twice as many as in 2018 according to a survey by Taiwan's National Chengchi University in June.
Fewer than 8% of respondents favored "unification" with mainland China, while most wanted to maintain the status quo -- an arrangement by which Taiwan remains self-ruled, without an official declaration of independence. Samuel Li, a student in the city of Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan said Beijing's crackdown on Hong Kong had escalated his distrust of the Communist regime. "In the past, many Taiwanese were OK with 'One Country, Two Systems' because China promised that people's day-to-day life will remain the same. But the situation in Hong Kong suggests the opposite," he said.
Mainland China and Taiwan have been governed separately since the end of the Chinese civil war more than 70 years ago, when the defeated Nationalists retreated to the island. Taiwan is now a flourishing multi-party democracy but the mainland's ruling Chinese Communist Party continues to view the island as an inseparable part of its territory -- despite having never controlled it. "China's plan towards the region is very different from before," she said. "It is more ambitious, more expansionist, and therefore things that were acceptable to them then may not be acceptable to them now." In 2019, Beijing proposed a "One Country, Two Systems" formula for Taiwan, similar to that used to govern Hong Kong since its handover from Britain to China in 1997 Under the agreement, Hong Kong was guaranteed to maintain a high degree of autonomy from the mainland government after its return to Chinese rule.
But since then, Hong Kong's pro-democracy camp and human rights activists have accused Beijing of betraying its promise and eroding democracy and civil liberties in the city, particularly in the wake of the 2019 protests and the imposition of the security law. Speaking to CNN in October, Tsai said her citizens had rejected the model. "The Taiwanese people have said clearly that they do not accept 'One Country, Two Systems' as the formula that can resolve cross-strait issues," she said. In January 2020 -- more than six months after the Hong Kong protests broke out -- Tsai won re-election by a significant margin over her Nationalist opponent Han Kuo-yu, who favored closer economic ties with Beijing. Political observers have attributed her victory in part to her support for the Hong Kong protests. Austin Wang, an assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas who specializes in Taiwanese politics, said Beijing's crackdown in Hong Kong has played an important role in how Taiwan's younger generation views China. "In the past, many Taiwanese were OK with 'One Country, Two Systems' because China promised that people's day-to-day life will remain the same. But the situation in Hong Kong suggests the opposite," he said.
"I think the issue is trust. When Taiwanese people regard China as not trustworthy, all promises or incentives rendered by China are discounted." China's foreign ministry said on Friday (November 26) that the Australian prime minister's comments about a Chinese navy ship tracked sailing through Australia's exclusive economic zone was "neither factual nor moral". Australia confirmed it had monitored the Chinese intelligence ship sailing in August inside Australia's exclusive economic zone but not in Australian territorial waters. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the ship - the second of its type monitored off the Australian coast in as many months - was traveling legally. Morrison told reporters in Adelaide even though the ship was being tracked, it showed "no one can be complacent about the situation in the Indo-Pacific." "As a country that has benefited from cooperation with China for a long time, Australia's advocacy of China's threat theory is neither factual nor moral. It will eventually shoot itself in the foot," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a news conference in Beijing on Friday.
Russia’s Military-Industrial Corporation Research and Industrial Association of Machine Building (MIC NPO Mashinostroyenia) in the Moscow Region town of Reutovo started a serial production of Tsirkon hypersonic missiles for the country’s Navy, a source close to the situation told TASS. "A serial production of Tsirkon missiles is underway at the NPO Mashinostroyenia, although state trials of this product’s surface launches will continue," the source stated. Russian President Vladimir Putin stated on November 3 that the trials of the Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile were nearing completion and they would start arriving for the Russian Navy from next year. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Putin on November 18 on the successful test-launch of a Tsirkon hypersonic missile in the White Sea. President Putin earlier said that Tsirkon hypersonic missiles capable of flying at Mach 9 (nine times the speed of sound) and striking targets at over 1,000 km would go on combat alert soon.
2021-11-29