Biden and Xi fire hot first salvos over Taiwan

Over a dozen People’s Liberation Army (PLA) fighter jets pierced Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) over the weekend, a Chinese provocation aimed in part at newly installed President Joe Biden’s administration. Taiwan’s Defense Ministry claimed that the Chinese squadron consisted of six J-10 fighters, four J-16s, two SU-30s, a Y-8 reconnaissance aircraft and two Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft, and that it issued radio warnings and deployed air defense missile systems in response.

The military maneuver was an early warning signal to the Biden administration, which has already expressed in its first days a “rock-solid” commitment to the self-governing island that is crucial to America’s military posture in the Asia-Pacific.

China views Taiwan as a renegade province that must be incorporated with the mainland, as Chinese President Xi Jinping famously said in 2018, “by any means necessary.” He said then that any move towards independence would be a “profound disaster” for Taiwan.

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