China In New Threat To Taiwan: “Island’s Military Won’t Stand A Chance”

China’s prominent English-language state media mouthpiece Global Times on Friday published a fiery editorial which conveys the mood in Beijing at a moment of unprecedented ratcheting tensions surrounding Taiwan. If China chooses to invade the breakaway democratic island, then Taiwan’s military “won’t stand a chance” it said.

The article further attacked Taiwan’s pro-independence movement and its external backers, saying the people of Taiwan are currently “dashing into a war that they cannot win.”

At the moment China’s PLA military is flexing as both a warning to Taipei and also American naval patrols in the South China Sea, given over past days there’s been repeat air and naval incursions into Taiwan-claimed territory surrounding the island. 

The column by GT’s defense analyst Liu Xuanzun spells out this ‘warning’ precisely by quoting an unnamed “military expert”:

Another military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times that Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities are seeking secession at the cost of ordinary people in Taiwan by tying them onto the chariot of the “Taiwan independence” forces and dashing to a war that they cannot win.

The PLA exercises are not only warnings, but also show real capabilities and pragmatically practicing reunifying the island if it comes to that, the analyst said. “The island’s military won’t stand a chance.”

It stated that Beijing currently has “no choice” but to enter a state of “enhanced war preparedness”.

Global Times: “Taiwan secessionists and the US are leaving the Chinese mainland and the PLA with no choice but to enhance war preparedness…island stands no chance of winning.”https://t.co/Ly5KTkw8uJ

— Jonathan Cheng (@JChengWSJ) April 9, 2021

The author additionally accused the US Navy of stoking tensions by sailing the USS John S. McCain destroyer through the Taiwan Straits on Wednesday, and then sending the US Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group into the South China Sea the day after. 

The column said that Beijing is also monitoring new reports of Taiwan’s military preparing to shoot down any threatening Chinese drones should they ‘stray to close’ to the island’s defenses.  

GT ascribed all of these things and the new tensions ultimately to Taiwan “secessionists’ hype of PLA threats” – but which will ultimately come to nothing in the face of the vastly superior mainland forces.

“Taiwan secessionists’ hype of PLA threats is crying for help from countries like the US and Japan, since they know they are powerless and want to make the Taiwan question an international one, Shi Hong, Executive Chief Editor of the Chinese mainland magazine, Shipborne Weapons, told the Global Times,” the state publication said. “PLA’s exercises from all directions of the island showed that mainland forces can isolate the island’s troops and cut off foreign intervention, and the US will not be able to come to Taiwan secessionists’ aid if a situation arises, Shi said.”

But this latter point is anything but certain, given by all appearances the Biden administration is acting just as hawkish on China than even Trump – or perhaps some might argue even more so.