Taiwan says military under great pressure from China as missions mount
06 October, 2020
Taiwan’s military has launched aircraft to intercept Chinese planes a lot more than doubly much as all of last year, the island’s defence ministry said, describing Taiwan as facing serious security challenges from its huge neighbour.
China, which claims democratic Taiwan as its territory, has stepped up its military activities near to the island, giving an answer to what Beijing calls “collusion” between Taipei and Washington.
In the past few weeks, Chinese fighter jets have crossed the mid-line of the Taiwan Strait, which normally serves as the official buffer between the island and the mainland, and also have flown into Taiwan’s southwestern air defence identification zone.
In a written report to parliament, a copy which was reviewed by Reuters, Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said up to now this year the air force had scrambled 4,132 times, up 129% in comparison to all of this past year, according to Reuters calculations.
China “is wanting to use unilateral military actions to change the security status quo in the Taiwan Strait, and at exactly the same time is testing our response, increasing pressure on our air defences and shrinking our space for activity,” it said.
The rapid development of China’s military has been accompanied by “targeted” military actions against Taiwan, the ministry added.
China has been particularly angered by growing U.S. support for Taiwan, including senior U.S. officials visiting the island, adding to broader Sino-U.S. tensions.
While Taiwan struggles to compete numerically with China’s military, President Tsai Ing-wen has been overseeing a military modernisation programme, aiming to make the island’s armed forces more nimble and Taiwan more challenging to attack.
Addressing a Taiwan-U.S. defence conference late Monday, Vice Defence Minister Chang Guan-chung said China has been ramping up what he called “realistic training against Taiwan”.
“We are developing systems that are small, numerous, smart, stealthy, fast, mobile, low-cost, survivable, effective, simple to develop, maintain and preserve, and difficult to find and counter,” he said.
Chang called for enhanced cooperation with america that goes beyond weapons sales, saying that would further invigorate Taiwan’s defence reform and military modernisation.
“We will also emphasise joint effort in training, operational concepts, capability assessment, intelligence sharing, and armament cooperation. They are equally important as the acquisition of hardware,” he said.
Source: