DefenceTalkTaiwan blasted China’s fighter jet incursions as “self-defeating” on Wednesday as 15 more of Beijing’s planes crossed into the island’s air defence zone. Taipei’s defence ministry said it scrambled aircraft to broadcast warning messages to the latest incursion, which included 12 Chinese fighters. China has ramped up the use of such drills to record levels […]

DefenceTalkA US warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait, the American navy said Thursday, a day after a top US commander warned of the threat to Taiwan of a Chinese invasion within the next six years. The Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS John Finn conducted a routine transit yesterday through the waterway separating the Chinese […]

DefenceTalkDefenceTalkFour retired Taiwanese military intelligence officers — including a major general — have been indicted for spying for China, prosecutors said Saturday. The quartet were charged with developing a spying network and collecting confidential information for Beijing, the Taipei district prosecutors’ office said. The two sides have been spying on each other since the Nationalists […]https://www.defencetalk.com/four-taiwan-ex-intelligence-officers-charged-with-spying-for-china-76803/

DefenceTalkDefenceTalkChina on Friday warned off a US warship sailing near contested islands in the South China Sea, Beijing said, the first such encounter made public since the inauguration of President Joe Biden. The USS John S. McCain “broke into China’s Xisha territorial waters without the permission of the Chinese government,” Beijing’s military said in a […]https://www.defencetalk.com/beijing-warns-off-us-warship-from-south-china-sea-islands-76766/

DefenceTalkDefenceTalkOne week into the job, US President Joe Biden has sent a clear warning to Beijing against any expansionist intentions in East and Southeast Asia. In multiple calls and statements, he and his top security officials have underscored support for allies Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, signalling Washington’s rejection of China’s disputed territorial claims in […]https://www.defencetalk.com/in-multiple-messsages-biden-warns-beijing-over-expansionism-76698/

DefenceTalkDefenceTalk The United States’ commitment to Taiwan is “rock-solid”, the State Department said late Saturday, as it warned that China’s “attempts to intimidate” the island are a threat to regional peace. The comments are the first from Washington on relations with Taiwan since President Joe Biden’s inauguration last week, and came on the same day […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-says-support-for-taiwan-rock-solid-as-chinese-jets-buzz-island-76688/

DefenceTalkDefenceTalkChinese jets made a record 380 incursions into Taiwan’s defence zone last year, a defence official said Tuesday, as a military-linked think-tank warned tensions were now at their highest since the mid-1990s. Democratic and self-ruled Taiwan lives under the constant threat of invasion by authoritarian China, which views the island as its own territory and […]https://www.defencetalk.com/taiwan-says-chinese-fighter-jets-made-record-380-incursions-in-2020-76644/

DefenceTalkDefenceTalkChina said Monday it would impose sanctions on Lockheed Martin, a Boeing defence division and other US firms involved in arms sales to Taiwan, the self-governed island that Beijing views as its territory. The two US giants were involved in a recent sale of nearly $2 billion worth of missiles to Taiwan, alongside Raytheon, and […]https://www.defencetalk.com/china-to-sanction-us-firms-over-taiwan-arms-sale-76528/

DefenceTalkDefenceTalkPresident Xi Jinping on Friday warned of China’s military resolve to defeat “invaders”, speaking on a 70th anniversary for the Korean War, the only time Chinese forces have fought the United States. In a long speech, heavy on patriotism and flecked by anecdotes of heroism by Chinese forces, Xi said victory in the 1950-53 conflict […]https://www.defencetalk.com/xi-invokes-chinese-military-might-with-us-in-mind-76522/

DefenceTalkDefenceTalkThe US government on Wednesday said it had approved the sale of $1 billion worth of advanced air-to-ground missiles to Taiwan as the island tries to shore up its defenses against China. The State Department said it had agreed to sell 135 of the precision-guided, air-launched AGM-84H SLAM-ER cruise missiles. Also approved was the sale […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-to-sell-air-to-ground-missiles-to-taiwan-76514/