THE ongoing visits of Russian President Putin to North Korea and Vietnam have further sparked regional power politics in Asia Pacific. It seems that policy makers and hawkish politicians of the US are purposefully implementing destructive policies in the Asia Pacific ranging from formation of QUAD, AUKUS, numerous military partnerships, anti-China economic groupings, militaristic manoeuvring in South China Sea and arms sale to Taiwan spreading spirits of regional instability and disharmony. The US permanent persuasion has made regional scapegoats namely the Philippine and Taiwan. Thus its chronic geopolitical policy of China’s Containment still continues which may have serious socio-economic, geopolitical and geostrategic spillover repercussions.
Keeping in view the strategic importance of Taiwan’s reunification with mainland China the pro-reunification groups of Taiwan opposed the complicity between separatist forces in the island and the US and termed the US arms sales and visit of American arms dealers to the island dangerous and escalatory to cross-Straits tension. They were of the view that buying American weapons would only lead to more severe casualties and drag Taiwan Island into war. The regional leader Lai Ching-te attempted to seek “Taiwan independence” by relying on the US, representatives of 27 American arms dealers in recent days visited Taiwan to attend a forum aimed at strengthening cooperation on defense technologies.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry strongly criticized the US arms sale to Taiwan and termed it as undermining China’s sovereignty and security interests, seriously harming China-US relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits, sending a gravely wrong signal to the Taiwan independence separatist forces. Unfortunately, the Biden Administration approved a new US$360 million weapons sale to the island of Taiwan, sending the island hundreds of armed drones, missile equipment and related support material.
The spokesperson rightly labelled this move as severely infringing on China’s sovereignty and security interests, seriously damaging China-US relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits, and sending a gravely wrong signal to the Taiwan independence separatist forces. The US has repeatedly sold weapons to the island of Taiwan, encouraging and supporting the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities in their stubborn adherence to the “Taiwan independence” stance and their provocations against the one-China principle.
He noted that this vividly reflected that the separatist moves for “Taiwan independence” and connivance and support for such moves from US-led external forces are the biggest threat facing cross-Straits peace and stability and source of damage to the real status quo in the Taiwan Straits. Lin warned that the DPP authorities’ attempt to seek “Taiwan independence” through military build-up, and US’ determination to support “Taiwan independence” with weapons, would inevitably backfire, leading to self-destruction and ending in failure.
Lin termed the Taiwan question as the core of China’s core interests and the first red line that must not be crossed in China-US relations and no one should underestimate China’s firm determination and strong capability to oppose Taiwan independence and defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Additionally, China urges the US to earnestly adhere to the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiqués, revoke its wrong decision of arms sales to the island, cease the dangerous trend of arming Taiwan, stop supporting and encouraging the wrongful actions of Taiwan independence secessionist forces, and stop endangering cross-Straits peace and stability.
It seems that the US is now following a Hellscape strategy in the Asia Pacific by playing its cards in Taiwan, Philippine and South China Sea. The US Adm. Samuel Paparo, the commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, shared his plans to employ thousands of drones if the Chinese mainland launches a military attack on Taiwan. Moreover, the US plans to deploy numerous unmanned submarines, unmanned surface ships and aerial drones clearly demonstrates its own geopolitical and geostrategic vested interests in the region. To counter the US Hellscape Strategy the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted a military exercise surrounding the island of Taiwan in a move aiming to punish “Taiwan independence” secessionist forces and to send a warning to external interference forces following Taiwan regional leader Lai Ching-te’s separatist inaugural speech on May 20.
Obviously the exercises display the PLA’s strike capability across all directions of the island without any blind spots, forming a situation where the island is pinned down from both the east and the west. It seems that the US has realized that the conventional mode of combat cannot secure a victory over the PLA in the Taiwan Straits, therefore it resorts to such an unprecedented war situation as the so-called Hellscape to thwart the PLA. Technically and tactically the US needs command platforms to command its thousands of unmanned weapons. The PLA has the ability to pin down these platforms or jam the signal.
The US Hellscape Strategy aims to instigate anti-China forces within the US as well as embolden secessionist forces on the island of Taiwan. The US is “instigating” Taiwan authorities to continue to act as the chess piece for it to contain China. The “hellscape” strategy is a plan to hurt and even destroy Taiwan. In summary, the US new geopolitical and geostrategic strategy of Hellscape has serious regional as well as global ramifications which would gear a new arms race in the region and beyond. Ultimately counter strategies, anti-ballistic missiles and modern war machinery would be deployed in the new war threat. It seems that the US administration is still passing through its past strategic ambiguity inching towards strategic clarity and it fears that the US may manoeuvre to further strengthen its newly coined Hellscape strategy. Undoubtedly, Taiwan is China’s internal affair, and China will strive to achieve reunification through peaceful means. Thus any sabotage manoeuvring would be dealt with by befitting responses.
—The writer is President, Centre for South Asia & International Studies.
