Posted on 09/05/2021 9:11:45 PM PDT by Right Wing Vegan
Washington, Sept. 5 (CNA) Former United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday called on the U.S. to stand with Taiwan after 19 Chinese military aircraft, a majority of them being fighter jets, flew into Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ) early Sunday.
"The United States must always stand with Taiwan and for freedom," Pompeo said in a tweet, which also included a Bloomberg report on the Chinese warplanes' Sunday incursion.
In the same vein, former U.S. ambassador to Japan and incumbent senator William Hagerty also shared the same Bloomberg report in his twitter account on Sunday.
"Communist China & other adversaries will continue to probe the resolve of the U.S. & our allies after Biden's debacle in Afghanistan," he tweeted.
"The Senate must press the Biden Admin to adopt a stronger posture to prevent foreign aggression," Hagerty said.
The remarks made by Pompeo and Hagerty came amid concerns that the U.S.' withdrawal from Afghanistan, which led to the country's takeover by the Taliban, had damaged Washington's credibility overseas.
The events in Afghanistan have led some U.S. allies to question whether Washington would come to their defense in the event of a crisis.
Asked to comment on Beijing's latest aggressive action toward Taipei, the U.S. White House National Security Council (NSC) reaffirmed Washington's commitment to Taipei in an email reply to CNA.
"The U.S. defense relationship with Taiwan is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), as it has been for the past 40 years. We will uphold our commitment under TRA, we will continue to support Taiwan's self-defense, and we will continue to oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo," a NSC spokesperson said.
"We continue to have an abiding interest in peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and we consider this central to the security and stability of the broader Indo-Pacific region," the spokesperson added.
According to Taiwan's defense ministry, Sunday's incursion marks the fourth time the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has sent aircraft to Taiwan's ADIZ in September alone.
All of the aircraft were spotted southwest of Taiwan, between the main island and the Taiwanese-held Dongsha Islands, a chart in the defense ministry's report showed.
That airspace is considered part of Taiwan's ADIZ, an area declared by a country to allow it to identify, locate and control approaching foreign aircraft, but such zones are not considered territorial airspace.
The Taiwan Air Force responded by scrambling planes to monitor the Chinese aircraft, issuing radio warnings, and mobilizing air defense assets, before the PLA aircraft left the nation's ADIZ, the ministry said.
It has become an almost daily routine for Chinese warplanes to fly into Taiwan's ADIZ over the past two years as cross-Taiwan Strait relations deteriorate after President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) assumed office in May 2016.
Very true!
And the contributions of Rapin Bill and Al "Second Chakra" Gore...
I hate China.
Thank you!
You sort of wonder what reaction there would be from Japan, South Korea and the Philippines if China started to invade Taiwan, met with resistance but not much if any from the United States.
Would they want to get involved in a hot war with China knowing that the U.S. was going to sit it out, or would they calculate that even Biden couldn’t stay out of that scale of a war and take their chance to destroy the Communist regime in China?
Russia would probably try to get involved also (on China’s side) and we have the makings of Armageddon here really.
Japan in particular would be really nervous about a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, there would be a renewal of claims on the island chain including Okinawa and perhaps a fear of first strike raids on Japan to weaken their recently beefed up defenses. Same goes for Manila, they have a lot to lose to China. South Korea perhaps not so much, their main problem would be keeping an eye on how North Korea responded to the situation in the region.
Weren’t the Germans delayed a bit in their reaction to the D-Day invasion because people were afraid to wake Hitler?
Can you imagine the liberal panic if DC were hit? “Where do I go to surrender?” “Does my EBT card still work?”
Pompeo...the deepest of deep state critter...beware.
Let us all thank bill Clinton for giving them much needed technology
What your the basis for that theory?
If China decides to take Taiwan, its theres IMHO. Nobody but nobody is going into a hot war with nuclear China over Taiwan. They’ll be some kind of “agreement” and within a year the borders will be redrawn. I kinda think biden and company wants as much global destabilizing as they can excuse away anyhow just like afghanistan and even israel. But wth do i know...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.