CHINA has unleashed almost 20 warplanes and ships around Taiwan to carry out “combat patrols” amid fears Xi Jinping could invade.
It comes after Taiwan elected an anti-Beijing president just days ago and Xi made military moves in an apparent effort to ready forces for an invasion.
GettyThe Chinese military has been increasingly hostile to its neighbours in recent years[/caption]
AlamyChinese president Xi Jinping has long threatened to use force to ‘reunify’ China with Taiwan[/caption]
Lai Ching-te of the ruling Democratic Progressive PartyAFP
Fears swirled that Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party could spark war with China if it refused to resume peace talks – and now Xi appears to be making good on previous threats.
The party swept to victory in the nation’s eighth presidential election – and it means there will now be at least four more years of limited to zero dialogue with Beijing.
New president Lai Ching-te is openly despised by the Chinese government – which has called him a “complete troublemaker”.
Wednesday marks the first time since the elections that the island’s defence ministry has reported Chinese military action nearby on such a large scale.
The “joint combat readiness patrols” involved 18 Chinese warplanes as well as ships hovering around the waterlocked state.
China regards self-governing island Taiwan as part of its territory – and has vowed to take it by force if necessary, carrying out ever more regular invasion rehearsals.
Observers believe Beijing may try to “strangle” the island using a blockade – while others suggest it will launch a large-scale military landing on Taiwan’s “red beaches”.
Concerning reports on Tuesday saw Xi firing several of his most high-ranking army commanders – and replacing them with “war-ready” generals.
Military experts claim the Chinese leader is trying to reshape his military into a finely tuned machine ready to invade Taiwan, and ready to fight.
Gordon Chang, a senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute, claimed that his overhauling of the military is an attempt to regain control of his forces, bringing in officers who are “prepared to actually fight”.
“There is a sense that many of China’s general officers don’t want to fight,” Chang told Business Insider.
“And so we really have a force led by an officer corps that is ambivalent about going to war.”
Dictator Xi has long sparked fears about an invasion of Taiwan – as well as committing gross human rights abuses against Uyghurs and strangling freedom in Hong Kong.
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