US and China deploy aircraft carriers in South China Sea as Philippines prepares for joint exercises

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Military activity in the South China Sea spiked over the weekend as a Chinese aircraft carrier entered the region and a US Navy expeditionary strike group wrapped up exercises.

Meanwhile, the US and Philippines were preparing for joint drills as the US secretary of defense proposed ways to deepen military cooperation between Washington and Manila after China massed vessels in disputed waters.

China's state-run Global Times on Sunday said the country's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, steamed into the South China Sea on Saturday after completing a week of naval exercises around Taiwan. There was no official announcement of the Liaoning's position, but the Chinese tabloid cited satellite images first reported by US media outlet The War Zone.

The Liaoning's reported arrival in the South China Sea came after a US Navy expeditionary strike group, fronted by the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island, conducted exercises in the South China Sea a day earlier. The two flat-top warships were joined by a cruiser, destroyers and smaller amphibious ships.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-and-china-deploy-aircraft-carriers-in-south-china-sea-as-philippines-prepares-for-joint-exercises/ar-BB1fyorq

China Warplanes Simulated Attack on U.S. Aircraft Carrier, Defense Analysts Say

A fleet of Chinese warplanes likely simulated an attack on a U.S. aircraft carrier group when a record 25 fighter jets and nuclear-capable bombers triggered Taiwan's air defense radars this week, analysts said on Tuesday.

The military operation coincided with the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group's (CSG) presence north of the Philippines, and came in the hours after Secretary of State Antony Blinken reaffirmed Washington's "serious commitment" to Taiwan and its self-defense.

Beijing's use of its People's Liberation Army to intimidate democratic Taiwan became a matter of public record last September when the island's defense ministry began logging aircraft intrusions into its self-declared air defense identification zone (ADIZ).

The near-daily flights concentrated around the southwest of the ADIZ—near the Bashi Channel and the entrance to the South China Sea—escalated further on Monday when 14 J-16 fighters and four H-6K heavy bombers were among 25 PLA aircraft to breach the zone between Taiwan proper and its outlying Pratas Island, also called Dongsha.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/china-warplanes-simulated-attack-on-us-aircraft-carrier-defense-analysts-say/ar-BB1fB5ht

China Fighter Jets Will Fly Over Taiwan to Declare Sovereignty, State Media Says

Chinese fighter jets will fly over Taiwan to "declare sovereignty" if relations between Washington and Taipei continue to improve, a prominent state media figure said after Beijing sent 25 warplanes toward the island on Monday.

Hu Xijin, chief editor of China's nationalistic Communist Party newspaper the Global Times, fired back at recent comments by Secretary Antony Blinken and said the military operation was a response to the State Department's loosening of interaction guidelines between officials from the U.S. and Taiwan.

The People's Liberation Army would "step up military pressure" in the event of a further warming of U.S.-Taiwan ties, he said. "If Taiwan forces open fire, that will be the moment of all-out war across the Taiwan Strait," he added.

The People's Republic of China claims ownership of democratic Taiwan despite having never governed it in the seven decades since its founding after the Chinese Civil War. The Chinese government has never renounced the use of force in its ultimate goal of "reunifying" the island, while Taiwan continues to be run as a de facto state and maintains several unofficial, yet crucial, global partners in an ambiguous existence known as the status quo.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/china-fighter-jets-will-fly-over-taiwan-to-declare-sovereignty-state-media-says/ar-BB1fBEDb

China Warns U.S. 'Not to Play With Fire' After Warplanes Descend on Taiwan Airspace

China warned the U.S. on Tuesday "not to play with fire" after the Asian nation sent warplanes into Taiwan airspace.

During a press conference, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian was asked about the U.S. updating its guidelines with Taiwan encouraging engagement between the two nations.

In response, Lijian warned the U.S. "not to play with fire on the Taiwan issue, immediately stop any form of U.S.-Taiwan official contacts, cautiously and appropriately handle the matter, and not send wrong signals to Taiwan independence forces so as not to subversively influence and damage Sino-U.S. relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait," according to Reuters.

-snip-

Taiwan has long operated as an independent nation with support from Western nations such as the U.S. but China has continued to claim it as part of their own territory.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/china-warns-us-not-to-play-with-fire-after-warplanes-descend-on-taiwan-airspace/ar-BB1fBQyf

FWIW Taiwan was part of China for only a brief part of its history. 1683 - 1895.

[The Magistrate]

1. Without Japanese Occupation, Sir

As a victor's prize in the 1st Sino-Japanese War, that would have lasted through till 1949 at least, a solid two and a half centuries. United States possession of such territories as Texas and most of the rest of the southwest is a good deal short of that.

You might find it instructive to look into the dates at which Russia took possession of Trans-Baikal Siberia

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

2. Yes I am aware of that.

My point stands however. Taiwan has its own indigenous population as does Tibet and Xinjiang AKA Chinese Turkestan.

[The Magistrate]

3. One Item Which Complicates The Matters You Raise, Sir

Is the circumstance in which those areas came under Chinese authority. They were territories adherent to Mongol conquerors of China, to which the dynasty which overthrew the Mongol dynasty asserted claim, as heirs to the previous Mongol rulers. It was a fairly loose claim, mind, but most things were at the outer reaches of Ming dynasty authority.