09
SEP
2024
The demand that the frigate Baden-Württemberg and the task force supplier Frankfurt am Main must in any case cross the Taiwan Strait has been made with increasing emphasis for quite some time. Last Wednesday, for example, Christoph Heusgen, head of the Munich Security Conference, spoke in favor of passing through the strait. 1] At the weekend, the chairman of the Defense Committee in the Bundestag, Marcus Faber (FDP), and the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Michael Roth (SPD), joined in; Roth explained that it was a "mistake" that the Bavarian frigate did not pass the sea route on the first Asia-Pacific journey of the German Navy (August 2021 to February 2022). 2] It has been reported several times that both the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Berlin put pressure on the passage to carry out this time; only the Federal Chancellery is still braking. This now seems to have changed. According to a report by the weekly magazine Der Spiegel, the decision has been made: The two German warships will shortly sail the route between mainland China and the Chinese island of Taiwan. 3]
This is done against the background of massive rearmament measures carried out by the United States and states allied with it on the so-called first island chain, to which Taiwan belongs and which extends in a wide arch from the southern islands of Japan via Taiwan and the Philippines to Borneo. From it, the United States can not only block the exit of Chinese ships into the Pacific, but also attack the People's Republic itself - for example with medium-range weapons, such as those recently transported by the US armed forces to the Philippines for a maneuver. 4] The US is not only expanding military bases in the southwest and especially in the north of the Philippines near Taiwan. They now include the Batanes Islands in their joint maneuvers with the Philippine armed forces, which reach up to 150 kilometers from Taiwan (german-foreign-policy.com reported [5]). The USA is also getting closer and closer to Taiwan militarily from the northeast. In March, a US destroyer docked for the first time on Japan's island of Ishigaki, the third-last of the southwestern Japanese islands before Taiwan. On Yonaguni, the last of these islands barely 100 kilometers east of Taiwan, US soldiers are now present. 6] Discontent is loud on all these islands; on Ishigaki the US destroyer was received with protests and a port strike.[ 7]
Even in the Taiwan Strait itself, US soldiers are now present. Apart from the fact that the United States is increasingly arming Taiwan - most recently the Biden administration approved the export of war equipment worth 360 million euros, including armed drones and missile equipment [8] - they have long been training Taiwanese military. In 2021, the then Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen officially admitted this for the first time. In early 2023, it was reported that the US government wanted to increase the number of military personnel sent to the island from just over two dozen to between 100 and 200. This has now obviously happened. In March, United Daily News (UDN) from Taiwan reported that members of the US special unit Green Berets are now permanently stationed in Taiwan - on military bases of the Taiwanese special unit 101st Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion; this in turn operates bases on the Penghu Islands and on Kinmen. The Penghu Islands are located in the Taiwan Strait about 50 kilometers west of Taiwan; the island of Kinmen is located in the Taiwan Strait barely two kilometers in front of the Chinese coastal city of Xiamen. Training on both Penghu and Kinmen - this could be explicitly confirmed by Taiwanese authorities - US special forces Taiwanese special forces.[ 9]
In recent weeks and months, a number of Western warships have crossed the Taiwan Strait – and have sailed not only relatively close to the southwestern Japanese islands of Ishigaki and Yonaguki, which are currently being jointly militarized by Japan and the United States, but also not far from the Penghu Islands and Kinmen. The last time a US destroyer passed the waterway two and a half weeks ago. A Canadian frigate had already done this at the beginning of August. Previously, warships from Australia, Great Britain and France had also sailed along Taiwan and mainland China. All the states involved have stated that they will continue to do so. This is now followed by the Spiegel report from the weekend, also the German Navy. At most, the weather could still prevent the two warships, which are on an Asia-Pacific cruise, from doing so, it was said recently. According to reports, the route in Berlin is classified as "completely normal"; the expected protests of the People's Republic of People's Republic are "serent". 10] The commander of the small naval association, Fleet Admiral Axel Schulz, recently stated that the trip was just as "normal" as a trip through the English Channel. 11]
Meanwhile, the Philippines is expanding military facilities on an island it controls in the South China Sea in a way that raises the suspicion that this would create conditions for the use of the island by the US armed forces. It is Thitu Island, one of the numerous Spratly Islands located in the South China Sea between Vietnam and the Philippines. There are already a number of military facilities on Thitu Island, including a runway for aircraft. At the end of 2023, Manila opened a new control center for its coast guard there, which, among other things, can be used to monitor all of China's activities in the region.[ 12] Now some facilities are being expanded and more newly built; there is talk of new naval facilities and of the runway being expanded. As the Chinese Global Times recently reported, Chinese experts are concerned that the expansion of the runway will allow foreign fighter jets to be invited to visit Thitu Island - including those of Japan or the United States, which could then use a Philippine military base in the middle of the South China Sea in the future. 13]
[1] Dana Heide: "If things go well for Putin, he could reach for the Baltic states". handelsblatt.com 04.09.2024.
[2] Through of German frigate planned despite protest from Beijing. deutschlandfunk.de 08.09.2024.
[3] German frigate should drive through the Taiwan Strait. spiegel.de 07.09.2024.
[4] Laurie Chen, Mikhail Flores: China's defence ministry condemns US missile deployment in Philippines. reuters.com 31.05.2024. S. Moscow in span of fire.
[5] S. play with fire.
[6] Japan equips Yonaguni. tagesschau.de 11.08.2024.
[7] Satsuki Tanahashi, Taro Ono: Protest greets U.S. destroyer anchored at Okinawa port. asahi.com 12.03.2024.
[8] US approves new $360 million arms sale to Taiwan or drones, related equipment. apnews.com 19.06.2024.
[9] Taiwan Confirms US Troops on Front-Line Islands Near China. newsweek.com 19.03.2024.
[10] German frigate should drive through the Taiwan Strait. spiegel.de 07.09.2024.
[11] S. on "Like through the English Channel".
[12] Jim Gomez, Aaron Favila, Joeal Calupitan: The Philippines opens a new monitoring base on a remote island in the disputed South China Sea. apnews.com 01.12.2023.
[13] Liu Xuanzun: Experts warn of possible Philippine provocations on China's Zhongye Dao. globaltimes.cn 22.08.2024.