"The Taiwanese air force would have to sink around 40% of the amphibious landing forces of the PLA in order to render this sort of mission infeasible," he said. Then Beijing would move to use missiles against Taiwan’s military and political centers. 6 Reasons China Would Invade Taiwan – The Diplomat All Sections Search Taiwanese engineers have spent decades digging tunnels and bunkers in potential landing zones along the coast. for Us, Chinese soldiers image via qingqing / Shutterstock.com, unveiled a South China Sea Peace Initiative. Essentially, that's only about 10 to 15 ships, he added. China has an estimated 1 million troops, almost 6,000 tanks, 1,500 fighter jets and 33 navy destroyers, according to the latest, "China's leaders hope that possessing these military capabilities will deter pro-independence moves by Taiwan or, should deterrence fail, will permit a range of tailored military options against Taiwan and potential third-party military intervention," according to a 2019. According to a recent survey, the public in Taiwan is not war shy after all. The tangled history of Shan State reveals the broken promises of a federal, truly democratic Myanmar. Comments are subject to our community guidelines, which can be viewed, President Xi Jinping has vowed to bring Taiwan back under direct rule, Beijing has not ruled out direct military action, The contested South China Sea may be at the centre of a future war, experts warn, China's Xi Jinping says it will not rule out force to ensure Taiwan is reunited with Beijing, Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). News Corp is a network of leading companies in the worlds of diversified media, news, education, and information services. 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If they did make it across the strait, the PLA would still need to find a decent landing spot for its ships. Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368 . The administration is pursuing a whole-of-government approach to counter China's concept of Comprehensive National Power. Shannon Tiezzi is Editor at The Diplomat. The Sun website is regulated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). For other inquiries, Contact Us. “Calling it a second Cold War is misleading, but to deny that it’s a Cold War is also disingenuous.”. 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China's military would be looking for a landing site both close to the mainland, and a strategic city, such as Taipei, with nearby port and airport facilities. China's Taiwan invasion plan, known internally as the "Joint Island Attack Campaign," would begin with a mass, coordinated bombing of Taiwan's vital infrastructure -- ports and airfields -- to cripple the island's military ahead of an amphibious invasion, according to both Easton and Sidharth Kaushal, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies. The independence of Taiwan means that another country has a claim to be the true China. Beijing insists that the People's Republic of China is the sole heir to the "China" title. It isn't clear whether or not such an attack by China would spark an intervention by the United States on Taipei's behalf. But those concerns have always been overblown. Why does China feel so strongly that Taiwan independence would be an act of war by Taiwan? Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense submitted its 2015 report on mainland China’s military to the Taiwanese legislature yesterday. Finally, the mobilization of amphibious landing vessels, ballistic missile launchers, fighters and bombers, as well as hundreds of thousands of troops, would give Taiwan plenty of advance warning of any attack, Kaushal said. The MND also says that it expects China to declare an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the South China Sea. Aung San Suu Kyi’s dangerous gamble to push ahead with a controversial election as a second wave of COVID-19 hits Myanmar hard. On the sidelines of the massive Han Guang drills, Taiwan's Maj. Gen. Chen pointed out the hundreds of spectators who had come out to watch and support the island's military. China regards Taiwan as a breakaway province which it has vowed to retake, by force if necessary… The coronavirus pandemic has affected Asian power shifts in a serious way. Updated 0511 GMT (1311 HKT) June 24, 2019. In 2005 China passed a law authorising the use of military force if Taiwan formally tries to secede. Yao-Yuan Yeh, Charles K.S. Get briefed on the story of the week, and developing stories to watch across the Asia-Pacific. Ferrying hundreds of thousands of troops across the narrow Taiwan Strait to a handful of reliable landing beaches, in the face of fierce resistance, is a harrowing prospect. Taiwan - officially the Republic of China - is a fully-independent nation on paper, but is not recognised by the United Nations. Chinese President Xi Jinping reviews a naval parade Thursday in the South China Sea in April 2018. He added that any military action would be focused on Taiwanese separatists and any "external forces" - likely meaning the United States. Washington has been a longtime ally of the island, selling weapons to the Taiwan government and providing implicit. An historic Chinese Cultural Revolution poster, showing a Chinese soldier and the island of Taiwan. Chinese troops could be dropped in from the air, but a lack of paratroopers in the PLA makes it unlikely. CHINA'S President has repeatedly warned that Taiwan "must and will be" brought back under direct rule - but why does he want this? "It will likely mean that China will be seen as the bad guy in the neighborhood, who uses force," he said. The amphibious invasion needed to put troops on Taiwan, however, could be the biggest hurdle facing the PLA. While the United States does not formally recognise Taiwan as an independent country, it does support Taiwan in other ways - and China is uncomfortable with the prospect of what it sees as its territory falling within the US sphere of influence. Collin Koh Swee Lean, research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies' Maritime Security Program in Singapore, said there would also be "immense political consequences" from taking over Taiwan, in the event of a successful China invasion. We pay for videos too. At the same time, the Chinese air force would fly over the Taiwan Strait and try to dominate the island's air space. At a regional security conference in June, Chinese, But for seven decades, China has resisted attacking. Yet while China hawks in the media might beat the drum of invasion, an internal China military study, seen by CNN, revealed that the PLA considers an invasion of Taiwan to be extremely difficult. There is, of course, one final deterrent to any PLA invasion of Taiwan. We pay for your stories! "If China wants to take any action against us, it has to consider paying a painful price.". As for how China would attack Taiwan, the MND said the PLA would probably use a combination of military threats and a blockade against Taiwan to intimidate Taiwanese. Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes. "It will alienate some regional partners and the good will which China has been trying to build over the years will evaporate. Roaring out of the sky, an F-16V fighter jet lands smoothly to rearm and refuel on an unremarkable freeway in rural Taiwan, surrounded by rice paddies. In different circumstances, this could be alarming sight. "Taiwan has a professional military, with a strong core of American-trained experts," said Ian Easton, author of "The Chinese Invasion Threat" and research fellow at the Project 2049 Institute, as well as "highly defensible" terrain. Xi Jinping extolled China's victory in the War to Resist American Aggression -- and sent a very clear warning to the U.S. © 2020 Diplomat Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. To see all content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. Beijing’s pressure on Taiwan and on other countries is generating greater sympathy and support for Taiwan. Tsai Ing-wen, the candidate for the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is currently leading in the polls, and Beijing has not-so-fond memories of the previous DPP president, Chen Shui-bian. But will moderation last? The MND noted that vast discrepancies between its military budget and China’s (which increased another 10 percent last year) has tipped the cross-strait military balance in Beijing’s favor. The MND suggested that recent PLA drills seeming to simulate an attack on Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, were a direct result of Beijing’s worries. "It's extremely unlikely that the invasion could come as a bolt from the blue," Kaushal added. After missile attacks, the PLA would use both aircraft and amphibious vehicles to mount an actual invasion. That might be enough to occupy smaller islands, such as those in the South China Sea, but an amphibious assault on Taiwan would likely require a bigger arsenal -- and there is "no indication China is significantly expanding its landing ship force," the report said. CNN's Serenitie Wang contributed to this article. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. This service is provided on News Group Newspapers' Limited's Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy. The "One China" policy endorsed by the Chinese government recognises Taiwan as a rogue province - collectively part of the world's one China.