China tightens its control over Taiwan. The latter counted 24 Chinese military planes around the island in the space of 24 hours, declared Thursday, January 18, the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense. According to a ministry statement, five Chinese ships were also detected around the island in the 24 hours before 6:00 a.m. (10:00 p.m. GMT) on Thursday.
Of these, “11 aircraft crossed the median line – an unofficial demarcation between China and Taiwan that the former does not recognize – and entered the southwest Air Defense Identification Zone (Adiz) and from the north,” said the same source.
It is Beijing’s biggest show of force around the island since Taiwan’s presidential election. On Saturday, voters in Taiwan elected Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as president of the archipelago, who promised to protect the territory from “threats and intimidation” from Beijing. China, which considers the island of Taiwan as one of its provinces that must be reunified by force if necessary, described Lai Ching-te as a dangerous separatist and threatened his supporters with harmful consequences. Yet his speech leaves reason for hope: “We must replace encirclement with exchange and confrontation with dialogue in order to build peace and prosperity,” he declared.
Economic and diplomatic pressure
For its part, China points to the score being significantly lower than those obtained by Tsai Ing-wen in previous elections. A way of questioning its legitimacy. So will China respond with more aggression? In any case, this is what she has accustomed us to. Taiwanese authorities report almost daily incursions by aircraft from the Chinese army, which last year carried out major military maneuvers around the island. In September, it sent 103 planes around Taiwan in the space of 24 hours, which Taipei called a “record.” At the same time, it could also increase economic and diplomatic pressure by sanctioning small states that have too close proximity to Taiwan.
And some preferred to submit to the Chinese giant. Two days after this election, Nauru, a small Pacific nation of 1,500 inhabitants, announced on Monday that it was severing its diplomatic relations with Taiwan, which it now recognizes “as an inalienable part of Chinese territory”. For his part, Tien Chung-kwang, Taiwanese deputy foreign minister, explains this change in attitude by Taipei’s refusal to grant him “large sums of money”.
And for those who sent their congratulations to Lai Ching-te? They suffered strong reactions from China. Example with the Philippines which, after applauding the new Taiwanese head of state, was ordered by Beijing “not to play with fire on the question of Taiwan”. Same with Singapore. However, this electoral vote arrives in a period of tension “much less compared to what we saw after the visit of Nancy Pelosi, for example, in August 2022”, estimated in the columns of The Express, Valérie Niquet, senior researcher at the FRS (Foundation for Strategic Research). In recent years, relations between Taipei and Beijing have deteriorated. For China, the desire for unification has strengthened around the objective of 2049, the centenary year of the People’s Republic of China. Until then, the future of relations between the democratic island and Beijing is still to be determined.