Time to Warn Taiwan Secessionists and Their Fomenters: War is Real--Global Times Editorial

By Global Times

Oct 04, 2021 08:58 PM

Two Su-35 fighter jets and a H-6K bomber fly in formation on May 11, 2018. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) air force conducted patrol training over China's island of Taiwan on Friday. Su-35 fighter jets flew over the Bashi Channel in formation with the H-6Ks for the first time, which marks a new breakthrough in island patrol patterns, said Shen Jinke, spokesperson for the PLA air force. (Xinhua/Liu Rui)

The US State Department issued a statement on Sunday, saying the PLA was conducting intensive training exercises over Taiwan island's self-proclaimed southwest air defense identification zone in the past few days. The statement accused the PLA of carrying out "provocative military activities" that “undermines regional peace and stability", adding "the US commitment to Taiwan is rock solid.” The Taiwan foreign affairs department immediately expressed gratitude to the Biden administration.

During the National Day holiday, the number of the PLA fighter jets and other military planes set a record high in their sorties over the Taiwan Straits. On Monday, before the publication of this article, Taiwan media outlets reported that the number of the PLA sorties reached 18 on Monday. 

The intensive actions of the PLA Air Force are not only a severe warning to the secessionist Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities on the island, but also clearly portrayed the severity of the situation across the Taiwan Straits, and at the same time gave a clear warning to the supporters of the DPP authorities.

The peaceful atmosphere that existed in the area only a few years ago has all but disappeared, and the DPP authorities now openly refer to PLA fighters as "enemy aircraft". They have constantly hyped up claims that they are at the forefront of the so-called democratic world to resist "authoritarian rule”. The strategic collusion between the US and Japan and the DPP authorities is becoming more audacious, and the situation across the Taiwan Straits has almost lost any room for maneuver teetering on the edge of a face-off, creating a sense of urgency that the war maybe triggered at any time.

The secessionist forces on the island will never be allowed to secede Taiwan from China under whatever names or by whatever means, and, the island will not be allowed to act as an outpost of the US’ strategic containment against China. 

After Tsai Ing-wen came to office, the status quo of peaceful cooperation across the Taiwan Straits was disrupted. The US government and the DPP authorities are trying to deeply integrate the island into the US’ Indo-Pacific strategy targeting China. The Chinese mainland will not tolerate the integration of the island and the US.

The curtain of preparations for a comprehensive military struggle by the Chinese mainland has obviously been drawn open. The PLA's military drills in the Taiwan Straits are no longer limited to declaring China’s sovereignty over the island, but to implement various forms of assembly, mobilization, assault and logistical preparations that are required to take back the island of Taiwan. Without giving up efforts for a peaceful reunification, it has increasingly become the new mainstream public opinion on the Chinese mainland that the mainland should make earnest preparations based on the possibility of combat.

Now, we will like to warn the DPP authorities and their supporters: do not continue to play with fire. They should see that the Chinese mainland’s preparation to use force against Taiwan secessionist forces is much stronger than ever before. 

Resolving the Taiwan question and realizing national reunification has never become so weightier on the shoulders of all Chinese people. Not only the US, but also some other countries are trying to use the Taiwan question as a card to play against Beijing. A fundamental solution to the Taiwan question is becoming all the more reasonable day by day. 

If the US and the DPP authorities do not take the initiative to reverse the current situation, the Chinese mainland's military punishment for "Taiwan independence" secessionist forces will eventually be triggered. Time will prove that this warning is not just a verbal threat.