The U.S. would do well to heed China’s creeping coercion of its neighbors.
Wall Street Journal
Date: Jan. 17, 2018
By: Brian Su, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York
“Left and Right Agree: Get Tough on China” (op-ed, Jan. 9), Walter Russell Mead points out that both sides of the political spectrum in the U.S. are increasingly in agreement that an aggressive China should be countered, and that the Indo-Pacific region is the
President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Nov. 9, 2017. PHOTO: ANDREW HARNIK/ASSOCIATED PRESS
most important world theater to the U.S. This realization points to the perennial issue of security threats faced by the world today. Yet in the midst of all this, the U.S. would do well to heed China’s creeping coercion of its neighbors, though it is far less reported.
Chinese warplanes have conducted “island encirclement patrols” around Taiwan and flown over international waters off Taiwan’s east coast numerous times in the past year, and have continued to do so already this year. Just last week Beijing unilaterally launched the northbound M503 flight route in the Taiwan Strait and other east-west extension routes.
Beijing launched these routes without any prior consultation with Taipei. Such an act runs counter to international civil aviation regulations and poses serious threats to aviation safety. This situation should concern not only Taiwan, but any country that claims to promote and maintain peace and stability in the region. [FULL STORY]