Officials said Hina employed a record 125 aircraft, and its Liaoning aircraft carrier and ships were involved in large-scale military exercises surrounding Taiwan and its outlying islands on Monday. The exercises simulated the sealing off of key ports, underscoring the tense situation in the Taiwan Strait.
China deployed its Liaoning aircraft carrier for the drills, and CCTV showed a J-15 fighter jet taking off from the carrier’s deck.
China’s People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command spokesperson Senior Captain Li Xi said Monday evening that the drill was completed.
Li said the Navy, Army Air Force and Missile Corps were all mobilized for the drills, which were an integrated operation. “This is a major warning to those who back Taiwan’s independence and a signifier of our determination to safeguard our national sovereignty,” Li said in a statement on the service’s public media channel.
Taiwanese F-16 locks on Chinese J-15 embarrassing communist party
Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense released footage showing a Taiwanese F-16 fighter jet locked onto a Chinese J-15 deck-based fighter jet. Chinese J-15 pilot desperately tried to escape the lock but failed in utter disgrace.
The problem is the ski-jump ramp of the current, only PLA Navy aircraft carrier, which makes take-off of aircraft exceeding 26 tons of total weight challenging for J-15 aircraft.
That’s why a lone Soviet-built aircraft carrier with a ski jump is no match for a U.S. flattop. And a J-15 carrying only a handful of medium and short-range air-to-air missiles in air defence configuration to be able to launch for Liaoning would be no match for U.S. carrier-based F/A-18E/F Hornet.
China bought an unfinished Su-33 aircraft from former Soviet block Ukraine which served as the basis for the naval J-15. However, the J-15 faced many challenges, including thrust-to-weight ratio, smoky engines and restricted take-off weight due to its heavy weight.
Taiwan has been converting 141 F-16A/B jets into the F-16V type and has ordered 66 new F-16Vs, which have advanced avionics, weapons and radar systems to face down better the Chinese air force, including its J-20 stealth fighter. Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries.
F-16V Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package.
The official said that the Republic of China Air Force (ROCAF) pilots are receiving F-16 training in the US to serve as seed instructors. The program was allocated a budget of NT$36.7 million. Taiwan is armed with AIM-120 AMRAAM and AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, superior to Chinese PL-15 and PL-12 missiles. Taiwanese pilots again demonstrated their ability to deter Chinese aggression with superior technology.
Taiwan celebrates National Day
The drills came four days after Taiwan celebrated the founding of its government on its National Day, when Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te said in a speech that China has no right to represent Taiwan and declared his commitment to “resist annexation or encroachment.”
Taiwan remained defiant. “Our military will definitely deal with the threat from China appropriately,” Joseph Wu, secretary-general of Taiwan’s security council, said at a forum in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital. “Threatening other countries with force violates the basic spirit of the United Nations Charter to resolve disputes through peaceful means.”
Taiwan’s Presidential Office also called on China to “cease military provocations that undermine regional peace and stability and stop threatening Taiwan’s democracy and freedom.”
A map aired on China’s state broadcaster CCTV showed six large blocks encircling Taiwan indicating where the military drills were being held, along with circles drawn around Taiwan’s outlying islands.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said the six areas focused on key strategic locations around and on the island.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily briefing that China did not consider relations with Taiwan a diplomatic issue, in keeping with its refusal to recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state.
“I can tell you that Taiwan independence is as incompatible with peace in the Taiwan Strait as fire with water. Provocation by the Taiwan independence forces will surely be met with countermeasures,” Mao said.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it deployed warships to designated spots in the ocean to carry out surveillance and stand ready. It also deployed mobile missile and radar groups on land to track the vessels at sea. As of Monday morning, they had tracked 25 Chinese warplanes, seven warships, and four Chinese government ships, though it did not specify what types of ships they were.
On the streets of Taipei, residents were undeterred. “I don’t worry, I don’t panic either, it doesn’t have any impact to me,” Chang Chia-rui said.
Another Taipei resident, Jeff Huang, said: “Taiwan is very stable now, and I am used to China’s military exercises. I have been threatened by this kind of threats since I was a child, and I am used to it.”
The U.S., Taiwan’s biggest unofficial ally, called China’s response to Lai’s speech unwarranted. “This military pressure operation is irresponsible, disproportionate, and destabilizing,” Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement. “The entire world has a stake in peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and we continue to see a growing community of countries committed to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
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