NPR reported yesterday that “Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday that it has detected a dozen Chinese naval ships and 47 military planes in the past 24 hours but no live-fire activity as in previous military exercises. The deployment covers a wider area this time… Lt. Gen. Hsieh Jih-sheng said China’s navy is creating two walls—one at Taiwan’s perimeter and another outside the first island chain, which extends south from Japan and through Taiwan to the Philippines. “The message they are sending is very simple: The Taiwan Strait is ours,” he said, referring to the waters between Taiwan and China.”
Both sides acknowledge that this is in response to the recent trip by Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te that included Hawaii and Guam, and included conversations by phone with U.S. congressional leaders by phone, which is being compared to Nancy Pelosi’s earlier provocations.
