The Taiwan count down has begun!

[D2D]

 US Pacific Policy in China’s Shadow!

Washington has indeed stepped up engagement, but missteps, half-steps, and mixed messaging are getting in the way.

There has been a flurry of Pacific Islands-related press releases coming out of the United States Department of State this year.

The announcements came especially fast and furious during a bevy of meetings in Papua New Guinea this May. On May 22 and 23 alone, the State Department issued four major read-outs: “The United States and Papua New Guinea Sign New Defense Cooperation Agreement,” “U.S.-Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Dialogue in Papua New Guinea,” “Secretary Blinken Witnesses the Signing of the U.S.-Palau 2023 Agreement,” and “Signing of the U.S.-FSM [Federated States of Micronesia] Compact of Free Association-Related Agreements.”

Earlier, U.S. President Joe Biden hosted the “first ever U.S-Pacific Island Country Summit” on September 28-29, 2022, at which the White House’s Pacific Partnership Strategy was launched. There is due to be a second summit in September 2023. (The meetings are held in September as many Pacific leaders are already in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, so it is more likely they would be willing to hang out for a few days for meetings in Washington.)

There is no question, then, that the United States wants to, at the least, look like it is serious about the Pacific Islands. The reason for the renewed interest is obvious. The degree to which Chinese influence operations in the region have undermined local governance has become difficult to ignore, and has the potential (and likely the intent) to undermine U.S. strategic architecture in the Pacific – and with it, the viability of a free and open Indo-Pacific.

https://thediplomat.com/2023/08/us-pacific-policy-in-chinas-shadow/

Appearance is more important than action according to Democrats!

[zsq987]

It's just a matter of time before the Chi-Comms invade Taiwan.

It'll probably happen while Pedo-Biden is still in office since they know he won't do anything.

After that, they'll take the Philippines and Vietnam to guarantee access to ALL the oil in the South China Sea.

[D2D]

Yes, Xi has dreams of an empire!

[D2D]

The US And China Are Ratcheting Up A Tug- Of- War For Influence Over Little-Known Islands In The Pacific!

•   The U.S. and China are competing for influence over a collection of small and little-known, but strategically vital, islands in the Pacific, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
  
•     An August agreement with Palau allows the U.S. Coast Guard to avert malign Chinese naval activity in Palauan waters.
  
•     “These are literally the same locations as what the Japanese had in World War Two, because the strategic value of these locations has been unchanged for 80 years,” Alexander Gray, who held the first National Security Council position ever focused primarily on Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands, told the DCNF.

Competition between the U.S. and China is taking shape across a swath of little-known islands that have an outsized strategic importance for America, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

A recent pact expanding the U.S. Coast Guard’s ability to ward off disruptive Chinese activities around Palau, an archipelago of atolls and islands in the western Pacific Ocean and former U.S. territory, is the latest in a series of agreements aimed at giving the U.S. open access to the Pacific. As China expands its own malign brand of policing power and dangles white elephant economic projects before developing Pacific partners, the impetus for America to woo Palau and countries like it is greater than it has been in recent memory, experts told the DCNF.

“You cannot maintain our policy in Taiwan and our policy in Korea without being able to have free and open access to the Pacific running through these islands,” Alexander Gray, who held the first National Security Council position ever focused primarily on Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands, now a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, told the DCNF.

These islands serve as “gas stations” for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, necessary logistics and pre-positioning hubs allowing the American military to operate thousands of miles away from its home shores, Kelley Currie, a former U.S. Representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Council and member of the Vandenberg Coalition, explained to the DCNF.

https://dailycaller.com/2023/09/02/us-china-competition-pacific-islands-palau/

[D2D]

China openly declares its territorial ambitions!

India and Malaysia have reacted strongly to a new map issued by China. India objected to the map showing the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh in the northeast and Aksai Chin in Ladakh as part of China, and Malaysia took exception to the fact that the Chinese map showed the whole of South China Sea as Chinese territory, including those parts of Malaysian Borneo.


There was an exchange of statements between the foreign offices of the three states. Indian foreign office spokesman Arindam Bagchi said, “We reject these claims as they have no basis. Such steps by the Chinese side only complicate the resolution of the border question.” The border dispute between the two large Asian states has been a longstanding one, going back to nearly 70 years, and there has been a war between the two in 1962 and a flashpoint in June 2020 when soldiers on both sides died. The Chinese foreign office responded saying that the map was “an exercise of sovereignty in accordance with the law.”

https://gulftoday.ae/opinion/2023/09/01/india-malaysia-object-to-new-china-map

[D2D]

China-Taiwan Weekly Update, August 31, 2023

Key Takeaways: 

1.  Foxconn founder Guo Taiming (Terry Gou) announced his campaign for president of the Republic of China (ROC) as an independent candidate. His entrance will likely further divide non-Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) voters, thereby increasing the chance of the DPP candidate Lai Ching-te (William Lai) winning the race.
2.  The Central American Parliament expelled the ROC as an observer. This advances a CCP coercion campaign to politically control Taiwan.
3.  The People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) began employing new flight patterns on August 24 in the Republic of China (Taiwan) air defense identification zone (ADIZ) likely to complicate and reduce Taiwan’s decision response timeline.


https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/china-taiwan-weekly-update-august-31-2023

[D2D]

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/X89Qi4lrNcw" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/v/X89Qi4lrNcw</a>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X89Qi4lrNcw

[D2D]

China flies more than 150 military planes toward Taiwan as the island condemns military "harassment"!

China’s military sent over 150 warplanes toward Taiwan this week in an unprecedented military action that the island’s government swiftly condemned as "harassment."

On Monday, mainland China’s military, known formally as the People’s Liberation Army, flew 103 warplanes near and over the island in a 24-hour period in what the island’s defense ministry called a recent new high. On Tuesday, an additional 55 PLA aircraft were detected near the island by Taiwan’s R.O.C. Armed Forces.

The Ministry of National Defense said 40 of the planes invaded Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone, the symbolic median line between mainland China and the island. They included more than 30 fighter jets as well as midair refueling tanker planes. Another 27 of the warplanes on Tuesday crossed the ADIZ.

"We urge the Beijing authorities to bear responsibility and immediately stop such kind of destructive military activities," Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said in a statement, calling the Chinese military action "harassment" that could escalate in the current tense atmosphere.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/china-flies-more-than-150-military-planes-toward-taiwan-as-island-condemns-military-harassment/ar-AA1gVPZ9

[D2D]

Key Takeaways

 

•   Terry Gou aims to unify with the Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) against the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ahead of the 2024 presidential election and is unlikely to succeed in bridging differences between the parties.
•     The consensus among the major Taiwanese political parties to defend the Republic of China’s sovereignty provides the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with opportunities to advance its coercive unification campaign.
•     The CCP purged Defense Minister Li Shangfu in September 2023 following investigations into corrupt equipment procurement.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/china-taiwan-weekly-update-september-23-2023

[D2D]

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/JXckJ-GHDi8" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/v/JXckJ-GHDi8</a>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXckJ-GHDi8

Will it become operational in time?

[D2D]

The Philippines said Monday it would take "all appropriate actions" to remove a floating barrier it accuses China of erecting in a disputed area of the South China Sea, a move that threatens to further fray fraught relations between the Asian neighbors.

National security adviser Eduardo Año assured the Philippine public in a statement carried by the state-run Philippine News Agency that the floating barrier would be removed.

"We condemn the installation of floating barriers by the Chinese Coast Guard," he said.

The nearly 1,000-foot barrier was discovered Friday blocking Filipino fishing boats from entering the Scarborough Shoal, a triangle-shaped chain of reefs about 120 nautical miles west of the Philippines' Zambales Province in Luzon.
The Coast Guard made the discovery public Sunday, posting pictures and video of the barrier on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Coast guard spokesman Jay Tarriela said three Chinese Coast Guard boats along with Chinese maritime militia service vessels installed the floating barrier in the southeast portion of the shoal, affecting the livelihoods of Filipino fishermen.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/philippines-says-it-will-remove-barrier-installed-by-china-in-disputed-south-china-sea/ar-AA1hdvpa

[D2D]

A Chinese dissident who has been living in a Taiwanese airport since Friday has pleaded for the United States or Canada to grant him asylum after he fled Thailand saying he feared being deported back to China.

Chen Siming, known for his annual commemorations of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, which is heavily censored and remains a major political taboo in China, told CNN he fled China in July after coming under increasing pressure and scrutiny from authorities.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/chinese-dissident-stranded-in-taiwan-airport-pleads-for-asylum-in-us-or-canada/ar-AA1hgq9H

Beijing Biden will never allow him entry, while Trudeau would allow him in only to extradite him to China as a traitor to global communism!