Taiwanese defense officials are concerned about a significant deployment of Chinese naval ships and military planes in the last 24 hours, warning that the buildup could eventually lead to war as tensions rise in the region.
Officials say China has sent about a dozen ships and 47 military planes to regional waters near the Taiwan Strait as the country prepares for military drills following Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te’s recent overseas trip, which included stops in Hawaii and Guam, an American territory.
The trip enraged China, which claims Taiwan for its own.
Lai, who has been in office since May, talked on the phone with leaders in the U.S. Congress while he was in Guam.
The visits happened just a few weeks after the U.S. gave the go-ahead for a possible $2 billion arms sale to Taiwan. As part of the deal, Taiwan would get an advanced air defense missile system that was battle tested in Ukraine and radar systems.
The State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs says the possible sale package includes three National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) and other equipment worth up to $1.16 billion.
The communist government of China has promised to take over Taiwan by force if necessary, and they send ships and planes close to the island almost every day.
Taiwan’s Lt. Gen. Hsieh Jih-sheng said that China’s navy is building two walls: one around Taiwan’s edges and another outside the first island chain, which goes south from Japan through Taiwan to the Philippines.
“Their message is very clear: The Taiwan Strait is ours,” he said, referring to the area of water between China and Taiwan.
People in Taiwan say that the deployment happened without warning and that what is happening now is a training exercise.
Hsieh did warn, though, that training can turn into drills, and drills can turn into war.
“It’s in the status of regular training,” he stated. “But under the status of normalized training, it’s able to mobilize military forces on such a large scale and carry out exercises in such a large area.”
Taiwan’s military is on high alert. On Monday, they set up an emergency response center and said that flights would be limited in seven areas off the east coast of China. The rules will stay in place until Wednesday.
The U.S. has shown its support for Taiwan many times through military operations, deals, and diplomatic talks with Taiwanese leaders.
In the past few years, it has become common for U.S. officials, like former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to meet with Taiwanese officials, only for Beijing to respond by raising its weapons.
In 2021, Pelosi made a rare trip to the island. In response, China held live-fire military drills around Taiwan. There were more of these drills in 2023, when President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan and former Speaker Kevin McCarthy met in California.
After Lai’s inauguration in May and his National Day speech in October, China held large military drills around Taiwan. China sees Lai as a separatist.
A lot of people think that President-elect Trump’s picks for ambassador to the UN, national security adviser, and most importantly, secretary of state are “China Hawks.”
For instance, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who has been chosen to be secretary of state, said at the Republican National Convention in the middle of July that he thought Trump would “continue to do what he did in his first term, which is…continue to support Taiwan.”
Rubio, on the other hand, has agreed with Trump that Taiwan should spend more on defense, which is what security experts think but might not be what most Taiwanese people think.
Trump has chosen Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., to be his national security adviser and Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., to be his ambassador to the UN.