US official heightens Taiwan tensions

Assistant defense secretary calls for closer military ties with island

A speech by a senior US defense official calling for closer military ties with the island of Taiwan is a provocation and an attempt to disrupt China’s efforts amid trade tensions with the US, Chinese analysts said on Thursday.

Randall Schriver, US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, called for “strengthening military ties with Taiwan to counter pressure from China,” at a symposium in Washington on Wednesday, NHK reported.

He said that the Chinese mainland has been pressuring the island by flying bombers and repeated military exercises off its coast, the Japanese TV news website reported.

US military and defense support for the island, including sales of arms, should continue, Schriver said.

Earlier this month, two US Navy ships conducted a “routine transit through the international waters of the Taiwan Straits,” Reuters reported, citing US defense officials.

“When other countries try to avoid involving themselves in sensitive waters, the US move of entering the Taiwan Straits is a provocation against China,” said Zhang Hua, an assistant research fellow at the Institute of Taiwan Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing.

Taiwan is used as a bargaining chip for US strategy toward China, Zhang said.

“It’s a delusion if the US expects to jangle China’s nerves with such provocations amid ongoing trade tensions,” Zhang said. “China will fight back if the US takes any further action.”

Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Logan, a Pentagon spokesman, told the South China Morning Post that “the US Navy from time to time will transit from East China Sea to South China Sea through that area for multiple different operational reasons.”

Zhang said it showed that the Chinese mainland’s methods were “working” as now Taiwan separatists felt the deterrence and are stepping up efforts to seek US help.

The US is attempting to pressure China with the Taiwan question while the US and China are immersed in trade tensions, Liu Weidong, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

Whenever relations between the US and China intensify, the US plays the Taiwan card against China and also other cards including the South China Sea and human rights, Liu noted on Thursday.

“But the US won’t support Taiwan independence. It is only playing on the edges as Taiwan is not worth the US engaging China in military conflict,” Liu said.

The People’s Liberation Army has been conducting livefire military drills in the East China Sea since Wednesday, with military experts saying they are tailored for “Taiwan independence” forces.

Countries have been cutting ties with Taiwan and turning to the Chinese mainland instead, Taiwan News reported.

Eighteen countries hold “diplomatic relations” with Taiwan, the Taipei-based paper said.