Taiwan simulates attacks by political rival China

[webfact]

Taiwan simulates attacks by political rival China
RALPH JENNINGS, Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan's military is simulating attacks by political rival China this week, despite an overall warming of ties, after Beijing staged what appeared to be a strike against the presidential office in Taipei.

The exercises, larger this year than in the past, follow televised images from China on July 22 depicting a mock ground troop attack on a red tower and attached low-rises that resembled Taiwan's presidential compound.

China is Taiwan's only major potential military threat and the two sides are separated by an ocean strait that is 160 km (100 miles) across at its narrowest point.

"Our most crucial goal is to simulate safeguarding against a possible attack from mainland China, whether on Taiwan itself, an outlying island post, our marine military space or our airspace," deputy Defense Ministry spokesman Chen Chung-chi said.

The drills, running Monday through Friday and known as the Han Kuang Exercise, involve 69 more aircraft than last year, Taiwan's government-funded Central News Agency reported. Many of the 63 drills will emphasize land-sea-air coordination.

Some drills are testing homegrown military hardware, including a drone system and Taiwan's first indigenous stealth missile corvette warship, Chen said.

Taiwan has shifted to designing its own hardware since 2010 as China mounted pressure on the United States, the island's chief overseas supplier, to stop arms sales.

Taiwan's proposed 2016 budget includes $92.5 million for developing diesel-electric submarines over four years, as well.

China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since the 1940s, when the Communists routed the Nationalists in a civil war. The Nationalists rebased in Taiwan, which China says must eventually be unified with the mainland.

The two sides have set aside their political dispute since 2008 to open a dialogue that has led to more than 20 agreements on trade, transit and investment. But the deals have failed to help Beijing's hopes of endearing Taiwan's public to the idea of unification.

In early 2014, tens of thousands protested after they felt one of the agreements, a service trade liberalization agreement, was moving too quickly through parliament. About 70 percent of Taiwanese prefer today's degree of autonomy from China, a government-conducted public opinion survey found late last year.

China has not openly threatened Taiwan since 2005, and the island's Defense Ministry is "intently in the process of grasping" the level of threat today, Chen said.

China's military is the third most powerful in the world and Taiwan's is No. 15, according to statistical database GlobalFirepower.com.

Relations with China could go into a freeze after a new president takes office in Taipei in May. The Jan. 16 election frontrunner has proposed no mechanism for dialogue that China would accept. Current President Ma Ying-jeou must step down next year due to term limits.

"We don't expect we will conduct any warfare in urban fashion near the presidential offices," said Alexander Huang, strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan. But, he said, the Taiwan's military personnel are likely to "simulate that the Chinese penetrate to the heart of Taipei."


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-09-10

[Publicus]

Boyz in Beijing are bracing themselves for the January Taiwan national election in which the independence party, the Democratic Progressive Party, is universally expected to return to power again by sweeping in to the presidency and the parliament.

The Taiwan middle class has rejected the pro-Beijing policies of outgoing KMT Prez Ma Ying-jeou which have produced slow growth with increasing Beijing influences and anti-democratic presence.

In a direct indication of the coming DPP sweep, which will elect as president the woman Tsai ing-wen, the DPP with its electoral TNT blew out the KMT in local elections, to include a KMT collapse in its historic stronghold of Taipei.

The latest polling is:

DPP: 47.4%

KMT: 26.7%

Others: 25.9%

The ROC Armed Forces (Taiwan) simulate a PLA attack during the 31st Han Kuang exercises, Sept. 10, 2015. (Photo/CNA)

In 2008 when Ma was elected, the Bush administration put out the word the incumbent DPP was too risky to continue in office, which did have some effect on voters, just as Beijing's elections statements do impact some Taiwan voters. This time around the Obama administration has no objections to the DDP resuming power while Beijing is mortified of it.

Add another active major opponent to the growing list of the regional opposition to the CCP Boyz in Beijing.

http://globalriskinsights.com/2015/07/do-taiwans-2016-elections-threaten-ties-with-china/

Edited September 10, 2015 by Publicus

[Publicus]

Things are heating up between the CCP Boyz in Beijing and Taiwan too, as if the Boyz didn't already have enough problems of their own making. The Boyz just can't boil enough hot water to put themselves into. As with fascist dictatorships any time anywhere, the Boyz are also biting off more than they can chew.

PLA to conduct live-fire drills in Taiwan Strait

The People's Liberation Army will conduct live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait between Sept. 11-13, according to a report Thursday from the PLA Daily.

The last time the PLA conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait was on July 30 this year, when the coast guard of Fujian's public security border defense corps performed a series of target exercises in Taiwan Strait waters off the mainland China coast.

The PLA also sparked controversy in July during its Stride-2015 Zhurihe series military exercise when it released video footage showing a simulated siege on Taiwan's Presidential Office Building in Taipei.

http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20150910000163&cid=1101　

Things seem to be getting warmer in all directions out of Beijing.....

China's New Video About Kicking America's Ass Is More Than Meets the Eye

The video itself never specifies a particular enemy, referring only to "a certain foreign alliance," according to Dean Cheng, senior research fellow with the Asian Studies Center at the Heritage Foundation. But it does show F-22 fighters getting pummeled by rockets on the runway. The US is the only country that operates those jets. And then it shows a variety of weapons blowing up Nimitz-class aircraft carriers and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. Again, very much US gear.

The opening scene of the video has been cribbed from the opening of the video game Call of Duty. And the close-formation flying and spitting-distance submarine combat adheres to the same stylistic conventions that are canon in Hollywood war flicks like Top Gun and The Hunt for Red October.

The island that the Chinese attack and invade in the video isn't Taiwan, but rather Okinawa — a Japanese island home to a large US military presence.

https://news.vice.com/article/chinas-new-video-about-kicking-americas-ass-is-more-than-meets-the-eye?utm_source=vicenewsemail

The video is awfully slow and dull compared to the fast paced crash bang boom videos people are used to in and from the USA. The Boyz turn out to be as boring in their excitement as they are in their daily lives.

https://youtu.be/ULtzgE9mJD8

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ULtzgE9mJD8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Edited September 10, 2015 by Publicus

[Publicus]

Taipei Times, September 10, 2015

This is far worse than heartburn for the CCP Boyz in Beijing..

Taiwan must be independent to become part of global community

Taiwan must declare independence to become an equal member of the international community, Taiwan independence activist Su Beng (史明) said yesterday.

“Taiwanese must become independent,” Su, 97, told a crowd in a visit to Changhua County’s Lugang Township (鹿港). “Only then will we be able to determine our own affairs, and only then will we stand as an equal among the nations of the world.”

Su yesterday visited the campaign headquarters of Democratic Progressive Party legislative candidate Chen Wen-pin (陳文彬) in Changhua County to voice his support.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2015/09/06/2003627070