During an inspection of the People’s Liberation Army Marine Corps (PLAMC) base in Chaozhou City, province of Guangdong, China’s Leader-for-Life Xi Jinping called on the troops to “put all (their) minds and energy on preparing for war,” reported state news agency Xinhua.
According to Xinhua, reported CNN, Xi told the soldiers to “maintain a state of high alert” and called on them to be “absolutely loyal, absolutely pure, and absolutely reliable.” Xi’s visit and war-like words come the day after the White House notified the U.S. Congress that it had approved the sale of three advanced weapon systems to Taiwan, noted CNN.
Monday’s notifications to Congress were for a truck-based High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), long-range offensive, air-to-ground SLAM-ER missiles, and external sensor pods for F-16 jet fighters to provide real-time imagery and data from the jets to the ground.
As Singapore based naval analyst, Collin Koh noted, “The confirmed sale of SLAM-ER, a long-range standoff strike weapon, would represent a step-up from past arms sales to Taiwan which then had a “defensive” emphasis. This might have been inevitable given the widening cross-strait military power asymmetry.”
China’s first response to news of the sale came from Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, reported CNN, who sternly told Washington to “immediately cancel any arms sales plans to Taiwan” and cut all “US-Taiwan military ties.”
It is highly doubtful the U.S. will do as China asked, especially under President Trump, who amid escalating tensions with China, has dramatically strengthened ties with Taipei.
Following the Monday announcement, White House officials then told Congress on Tuesday that the Trump administration was also planning to sell large, sophisticated MQ-9 Reaper drones and land-based Harpoon anti-ship, coastal defense missile systems to Taiwan. These, along with underwater sea mines, will help deter amphibious landings from the mainland.
Al Jazeera reported that U.S. National Security Adviser, Robert O’Brien recently said Taiwan needs to invest in capabilities including more coastal defense cruise missiles, naval mines, fast-attack craft, mobile artillery and advanced surveillance assets to make itself like a military “porcupine,” since, “Lions generally don’t like to eat porcupines.”
These increased U.S. arms sales come with calls by U.S. officials to Taiwan, similar to those made to other allies – to increase its defense spending and improve its military capabilities – to make it clear Taiwan is fully committed to defend itself if attacked.
These calls apparently are being heeded. Al Jazeera noted that:
On Saturday, in a speech to mark Taiwan’s national day, [Taiwanese president] Tsai said the government would continue to modernise the island’s defence capabilities and enhance its capacity for asymmetric warfare to “deal with military expansion and provocation from the other side of the Taiwan Strait”. Asymmetric warfare is designed to make any Chinese attack difficult and costly, for example with smart mines and portable missiles.
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Support Senator Lindsey Graham!
China the nuclear test range with Iran,
Time to send these worthless anti freedom anti USA subhuman ‘commie’ bastards back to the stone age. destroy the chinese and their economy. Do it and be done with it and the world will be a much better place without them. Truman should have listened to Mac Arthur about nuking north korea and be done with it. Now look where we are.
Amen. The Communist Red Chinese are building boat tanks that can cross the Taiwan Strait straight to Taiwan. They even announced that Taiwan’s freedom is just a blip in the pages of history. And they are stealing our latest technology from own universities. Send the Communist Red Chinese student back to Communist Red Chine now.
Give Taiwan the bomb and give Taiwan our latest jets, ships, space weapons, artificial intelligence, and let them go at it with Communist Red China.
I would be amazed if Taiwan did NOT have nuclear weapons. I ran a Taipei semi test facility for many years and visited quarterly during that time. The Taiwanese hate PRC with a passion and if attacked will fight back vigorously. They have the money and the smarts to create nuclear weapons just like N. Korea and Pakistan. They should be our strong allies in that region, in a fight they would be stronger than Korea or Japan.
The Democrats keep claiming Russia is our Enemy . The truth is they were our Allies and would be of great help if we were to have to go War with China . Do they understand this ?
A war with china is a dead end war, There is no victory where nukes are not used. The russians have been selling china military equipment and supplies for years, this would give russia a chance to see how they perform against the U.S equipment,
Winnie the flu better prepare for early retirement…minus the gold-watch? It far easier for the PLA ‘to do a coup’ than to go start a war with Taiwan & the US…and risk more than losing face?
If Biden gets in he will stop all the arms to Taiwan because he’s the commies buddy that’s sold us and Taiwan out for big bucks. .Harris will be the same. TRUMP 2020
Not sure about this ? It helps them out , but later down the road it could be used on us ! I feel we give to much of our defence secrets away . But I’m not knowledgeable enough about the situation to know for sure if it’s right ?
china has released a bio-hazardous weapon on the world and needs to be toned down , the world already wants revenge
China d as would pay Trillions for the damage they done to the worlds population
bring it on boys, bring it on…. we will destroy you
bonus – lets put the dems on the front line
Actually, let’s destroy the democommies first and then take care of the Chicoms!
You mean the DemonCrats
After initiating germ warfare they think they should “prepare for war”? It has always been war between them and Taiwan and us on the side of Taiwan ( Formosa). We bailed them out of WWII and protected the Burma road with the Flying Tigers to get supplies to them but apparently no appreciation for our efforts. Nixon opened trade deals with them and they now steal all our technology , no appreciation. We stupidly shut down our factories to rely on their cheap labor and they “prepare for war”! WHEN YOU LAY DOWN WITH DOGS AS HUNTER AND JOE DO, you get up with fleas folks. All about the money and cheap labor. Let’s work again , not wage war. If they arm, we arm. So be it.
Trump All the way
When thinking of relations with China, refer back to this speech: https://www.thelibertyman.com/docs/ChineseDefenceMinisterSpeech.pdf
Why would most countries balk at attacking the US? Well, besides the elite military there are millions of weapons in the US held by citizens who would suddenly become very unified by an outside attack. Taiwan should mirror the US and encourage all of their citizens to become armed. There would be no better deterrent than over twenty million free people all armed with firearms.
I believe it is our responsibility to aid those that are on the front lines with those that oppose us. We should aid those that have shown themselves to be a strong long term ally such as Taiwan, that will most likely to be hit first.. It is in our best interest as well as theirs. China only respects power, not people or countries that oppose them unless they can makeit costly for the aggression that is sure to come.