In Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s New Year’s target, he described “reunification” with Taiwan as “inevitable”. Despite the abuse, the area state voted in the political candidate who was most important of China, one Beijing described as a “destroyer of peace across the Taiwan Strait.”
In the weeks leading up to Taiwan’s Jan. 13 regional elections, China undertook a notable discharge in military aircraft attacks. Yet after a congressional committee visited in late February, the decline was significant.
This new silent should not be interpreted as a de- increase, but quite a mark of a controlled approach.
>, >, >, This is the fourth iteration ( November 2022, May 2023, October 2023 ) of periodic reports published by The Daily Signal to address China’s intimidation of Taiwan.
The number of People’s Liberation Army aeroplane in Taiwan’s air defense zone was the lowest since the then-Celtic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, visited the country in August 2022, when the country’s national election was held.
No Chinese plane were found in the airport surrounding Taiwan on the day of the vote, where at least nine aircraft per day had been regularly seen.
The Chinese navy’s ships retreated to Taiwan and largely avoided it. This type of pullback is unusual of China’s new activities, which has relied on consequently- called extreme “wolf warrior diplomacy” to hit its goals.
Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., chairman of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, led a legislative committee to Taiwan in late February.
In the past, Chinese military demonstrations have been sparked by delegations of parliamentary lawmakers or top U.S. officials. Given the nature of the Gallagher delegation, it was noteworthy that the visit did n’t elicit more of a response.
China expanded its army of intimidation to incorporate what appear to be security balloons, despite the fact that there were not as many people seen over the Taiwan Strait. A full of 94 Chinese kites have been found flying close to Taiwan since it began publishing sightings in early December. In the week leading up to the national election, at least nine flew directly over Taiwan.
China finally marked the Chinese New Year on Feb. 10 by sending eight bubbles, six planes, and four naval vessels toward Taiwan]KM1]   ,]SB2]  ,, more bubbles than were recorded on any past time. These instrumented bubbles fly at levels between 11, 000 and 38, 000 feet, an aircraft used for business aviation.
China has been silent about the purpose of these balloons, which spokespersons for the Chinese Communist Party call “weather balloons” while U. S. lawmakers and others call them” spy balloons” . , Such incidents remind Americans of China’s invasive opérations last year, when a large spy balloon drifted across the nation before being shot down by the U. S. military.
While the tensions were high at sea, the horizon was the object. China’s Fujian Maritime Safety Administration announced that it would start inspecting boats in the Taiwan Strait, apparently for only a few weeks after Tsai Ing-wen’s meet in April 2023 with then-Chairman Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
Lately, China has begun acting on that claim. In February, Taiwanese officials boarded a Japanese holiday boat and harassed travellers. Two Chinese fishing perished while being chased by the Chinese Coast Guard in “restricted waterways,” according to news reports.
Some Taiwanese were divided because Taipei’s alleged heavy-handedness toward the affair. Both incidents occurred close to the Kinmen Islands, a military army and the home of thousands of Taiwanese residents.
Amid lessened conflicts, Taiwan’s authorities changed how it reports the appearance and actions of the People’s Liberation Army, or PLA. The Taiwanese Ministry of Defense has been providing a regular report on Chinese martial aircraft and vessels that entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone or near lakes for years.
Days after Taiwan’s Jan. 13 election, the defense ministry’s daily reports stopped including specifics such as aircraft type and detailed flight maps. When asked why the shift was made, the ministry responded:” We hope to let our country’s people understand the current situation we are facing as far as possible, without compromising the source of our intelligence”. That said, these daily reports are still important.
The United States was operating the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in the South China Sea in order to control tensions, along with Destroyer Squadron 23. On March 5, the USS John Finn made its way through the Taiwan Strait. In Japanese waters, a second aircraft carrier strike group led by the USS Ronald Reagan is close by.
What does this mean?
China’s drawdown in traditional military maneuvers in the run-up to the Taiwan election was based on logic. But if the Chinese Communist Party hoped to coax Taiwan’s voters away from a more independent viewpoint, the effort backfired.
China’s use of relatively benign balloons failed to serve as a clear but non-confrontational reminder to the island nation. In the end, the voters elected Democratic Progressive Party candidate Lai Ching-te as president, continuing to be in charge a party that the Chinese Communist Party despised.
As mentioned, the United States is also familiar with Chinese balloons in our skies. American minds are now resonant with the spy balloon that traveled through the country last year and the unidentified balloon that was discovered over Utah this month.
It’s possible that the balloons over American airspace were the same ones that were released over Taiwan. One of these unmanned aircraft that was developed in China could travel to the United States in days using the jet stream.
Balloons flying over Taiwan, like those that float over our own country, guard delicate military installations throughout the Pacific and the continental United States. Whether these Chinese devices are intended to spy, monitor the weather, or simply intimidate, a Taiwanese problem has become an American one.
The chances of a crisis are merely a blip.
Mid-April is viewed by many military experts as the opening for a potential cross-strait conflict between China and Taiwan due to more ideal weather and operational conditions in the Taiwan Strait.
In the middle to the end of the summer, the Chinese Communist Party has historically conducted high-end drills and wargames in the South China Sea. Exercises like these can quickly turn into more than that, warns the commander of the U. S. Pacific Fleet, Adm. Samuel Paparo.
In light of recent developments in the Chinese military, Paparo predicted that” soon we’ll be at a point where a force sufficient to carry out a profound military operation is in the field and operating under a fig leaf of exercise.”
Next month, Paparo takes over as commander of U. S. Indo- Pacific Command.
Lai’s inauguration as Taiwan’s president is set for May 20, likely an opportunity to pressure both Taiwan and the U. S. that China wo n’t miss. China’s slowdown of intimidation with aircraft and ships could be the calm before a larger, more serious military demonstration.
Relations across the Taiwan Strait have been tense for months despite this sembling lull. Something is on Xi’s mind, despite China’s apparent military pull and use of fresh tactics.
Taiwan and its neighbors should be watchful for a return to more aggressive military tactics and threats from China. This is n’t the sound of the sea settling, but rather a calm before the storm.
