Staff Reports
Although tensions between China and Taiwan have been building for years, they reached a breaking point this week.
By shooting down a military drone that had breached its airspace, Taiwan took a decisive defensive step against China's Red Army for the first time ever. A short while before, Taiwan's leadership made a threat to use force in response to any further aggressive military advances by China on its soil.
🚨🇹🇼Just in: Taiwan shoots down Chinese drone for first time off Chinese coast. pic.twitter.com/IWELtKchWt
— Terror Alarm (@Terror_Alarm) September 1, 2022
Taiwanese soldiers fired and killed the drone on Thursday after warning rounds failed to stop it. The incident happened just one day after Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) warned that it would launch a response against any Chinese forces or equipment that came within 12 nautical miles of the self-governing island's territory.
Tsai Ing-wen, the president of Taiwan, charged earlier on Thursday that China was intimidating Taiwan via "gray zone" methods, such as drone overflights, in a speech to MOD personnel.
According to The Guardian, Tsai already ordered the military to take "strong countermeasures" if China keeps invading Taiwan's air and seaspace.
According to local news station TVBS, Taiwanese forces used signal lights to scare the drone away after it flew over restricted seas near the Shihyu Islet, one of a group of islands close to the coastal mainland.
According to Reuters, the MND used warning shots for the first time on Tuesday to fend off a sortie of Chinese military drones that were headed for the Kinmen islands, which is about where the Thursday incident occurred.
Since beginning extensive military drills in reaction to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's in-person meeting with Tsai, China has frequently dispatched drones to monitor the Taiwan-controlled islands. Since then, videos of people using their own drones to take images while flying close to the islands have gone viral on Chinese social media.
Tsai ing-wen says Taiwan will resolutely resist China’s provocations and aggression.
Although the U.S. abandoned its formal diplomatic relations with Taipei in 1979 and turned to support Beijing, the U.S. is Taiwan’s most important arms supplier.https://t.co/opmdH1gwL7
— NFSC_HAGnews (@NFSC_HAGnews) August 28, 2022
As for the timing of this escalation, it comes just one day after news broke of Joe Biden's intention to ask Congress for $1.1 billion in military funding for Taiwan, a move that would all but sever diplomatic ties with China.
US President Joe Biden to approve an estimated $1.1bn arms sale to Taiwan, including 60 anti-ship missiles and 100 air-to-air missiles.
Read more: https://t.co/dfYyqOhlrS pic.twitter.com/4CAj9YneS5
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) August 30, 2022
Therefore, Biden's goal is to enlist America in every foreign military conflict by financing further proxy conflicts until we finally default on our debt.How much longer before the dam breaks? America is being pushed to the breaking point.
The preceding is a summary of an article that originally appeared on Sons of 1776.
