China-Taiwan clash: World nears war as Beijing blames Australia

described as a “significant escalation”Beijing brought out its artillery through the night and fired several missiles directly at the democratic island nation of 24 million people.

A Chinese ship simulating an attack on an island has also been spotted in the Taiwan Strait.

Launching missiles over Taiwanese airspace over the heads of the population is a red line that has never been crossed.

The missiles were part of a show of power from China after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, which Chinese officials see as a provocation.

These were not the only ones fired when Beijing’s attacks were directed against the United States and its allies (including Australia).

China’s Advisor Hua Chunying has thrown Australia into turmoil with a few short sentences that will likely catch the attention of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Hua accused “the United States and its allies” of bringing the world closer to war after Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Beijing’s actions were “very disturbing” and “unbalanced and precarious” .

“Our countermeasures are necessary as a warning to provocateurs and as a step to protect our sovereignty and security,” she said.

“Now the US and its aides are speaking out against China’s ‘overreaction’.

“But if they really care about peace and stability in the region, why didn’t they rise up and try to deter Pelosi? They saw this coming and they couldn’t prevent it. Was it?

“I hope that the United States and its handful of ‘allies’ will realize that if they are to respect democratic principles, they must listen and respect the voices of the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people. .”

Writing for The Australianauthor Greg Sheridan said what China did this week brought the world “a few steps closer to war”, and that the war “had unimaginable consequences between the world’s two superpowers”. rice field.

“We are probably still far from war, but war is getting closer, more likely and more imaginable,” Sheridan wrote.

“Chinese Navy warships and fighter jets conducted live-fire exercises at six to seven locations in a circle around the island of Taiwan.”

China ‘simulates attack on island’

In a terrifying sign of what’s to come next, Chinese planes and ships were believed to have operated in the Taiwan Strait on Saturday, simulating an attack on Taiwan’s main island, the Taiwanese military said.

The military in Taipei “detected multiple batches of communist planes and ships operating around the Taiwan Strait, some of which crossed the Central Line.

It was determined that they were conducting a simulation of an attack on the island of Taiwan,” the defense ministry said in a statement.

The Taiwan Strait, which separates the island from mainland China, holds military exercises both at sea and in the air.

But the current exercise is much more advanced than before. Chinese ships and aircraft cross the so-called “central line” that separates the two countries’ straits. This is a route that Beijing has greatly respected.

Maps released by China of the areas where training is taking place and where missiles can be landed showed they were within 12 nautical miles of Taiwan’s coast.

This would bring the exercise into what is commonly considered Taiwan’s internal waters.

Images from a maritime traffic tracking website show commercial vessels are conspicuously absent from these zones to avoid being embroiled in scuffles.Some airlines have canceled flights to Taipei. Did.

Japan’s defense ministry said five Chinese missiles landed in waters within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) near some of its remote islands. It’s a first for itself.

But Japan added that four of them “believed to have flown over Taiwan’s main island.”

It released a map (below) depicting the path of a missile fired from China’s Fujian province. The rocket landed south of Hateruma Island, passing directly over or near Taiwan’s capital on the way.

Neither Beijing nor Taipei have officially confirmed the missile’s overflight, but it is openly debated in China.

“The exercise included a live-fire test, and it was the first time they crossed the island of Taiwan,” Meng Xiangqing, a professor at the National Defense University of China, told state broadcaster CCTV.

first published as Taiwan controversy explodes, China blames Australia