The United States’ Counterattack on Taiwan: China, the Free World, and the War in the Shadow of the Intifada
He mentioned that with its relationship with its allies in the region, the United States seemed more determined to create a situation that would prompt China to attack Taiwan. The United States has this posture.
Beijing launched the drills on Saturday, a day after Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen returned from a 10-day visit to Central America and the United States where she met US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other US lawmakers.
Asked if the costs of such a visit were too high, Wu told CNN, “China cannot dictate how Taiwan makes friends. And China cannot dictate how our friends want to show support to Taiwan.”
Taiwan and China have been governed separately since the end of a civil war more than seven decades ago, in which the defeated Nationalists fled to Taipei. Taiwan is ranked by Freedom House as one of the top freest places in Asia after it transitioned from dictatorship to democracy in the 1990s.
China has made clear it wants to unify with the island by force if necessary, even as the ruling Communist Party claims the island as its territory.
After his meeting, the leader of the free world questioned whether France should get involved in the Taiwan issue, telling reporters that the best thing for Europeans to do is not to get involved in the issue. French officials said his comments were misinterpreted. Taiwan asked France for clarification, according to Wu.
The US has an obligation to provide defensive weaponry to Taiwan, but it is typically not clear whether the US will defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack.
But a handful of the documents – which provide only a snapshot of US intelligence gathering – also indicate some of the intelligence defense officials are gathering about China, the country Washington has deemed the “most serious long-term challenge to the international order.”
Many of the documents pertain to the battlefield in Ukraine and the Russian war effort, with some showing the degree to which the United States has penetrated the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Russian mercenary organization Wagner Group.
Many of the documents, which US officials say are authentic, had markings indicating that they had been produced by the Joint Staff’s intelligence arm, known as J2, and appear to be briefing documents.
Chinese Pentagon Study of the ukraine Intl Hypersonic Glide Vehicle (HNK-MIK-Mic) Document Leak
If the Russian leadership was targeted by a Ukrainian strike, China would provide Russia with more materiel and it would respond in a stronger way.
US officials have repeatedly and publicly warned Beijing against supplying aid to Russia for its war effort – and earlier this year said China was considering providing the Kremlin with lethal aid.
The US did not want to give the Ukrainians long-range missiles because of the fear that they’d use them to strike inside Russia. Ukraine has pledged not to use US-provided weapons to do so.
The limited number of attacks that have took place inside Russia is something that the Ukrainians do not discuss.
Beijing has yet to publicly comment on the document leak, but there has been some coverage about it circulating in its domestic media, including an article by the overseas edition of the Party mouthpiece People’s Daily.
The article stated that the US is still “not stopping” despite scandals involving its allies and public uproar.
One notes a February 25 flight test of a “developmental” DF-27, which it describes as an intermediate range ballistic missile-class multirole hypersonic glide vehicle. The weapon has a “high probability” of penetrating US missile defense, the document says.
Missiles with hypersonic glide vehicles are designed to fly more than five times the speed of sound and can maneuver in flight, making them almost impossible to shoot down, according to experts. China is considered to have among the world’s most advanced hypersonic weapon development programs.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/11/china/china-pentagon-documents-leak-ukraine-intl-hnk-mic/index.html
US Department of Defense Counterexamples to Beijing’s “Ignoring a Chinese Company in 5G Network Rollout” and a People’s Liberation Army Navy Deployment
Another entry includes notes on a recent People’s Liberation Army Navy deployment, which the document notes was the first time the Yushen LHA-31 helicopter-carrying assault ship was included in an extended area deployment.
Signals intelligence includes intercepted communications and is broadly defined by the National Security Agency as “intelligence derived from electronic signals and systems used by foreign targets, such as communications systems, radars, and weapons systems.”
A document says that the Foreign Ministry in Jordan planned to assure Beijing that their interests are not being ignored, after Beijing complained that Chinese companies weren’t involved in Jordan’s 5G network roll out.
Another said Nicaragua was negotiating with a Chinese company for the construction of a deepwater port on its Caribbean coast, attributing this information to signals intelligence.
The US Department of Defense said in a statement over the weekend that it was standing up an investigation into the validity of the documents, while still reviewing them.