The island of Taiwan awoke yesterday morning to find itself surrounded by the China Navy. The Chinese government says this is an "exercise" but Taiwan believes an invasion is coming. So does the USA.
From the Chinese government:
As a result of China's military moves, Taiwan deployed its Coast Guard, which is now in a sort of Mexican Stand-off with China's (much larger) Navy:
Taiwan Air Force announced that 10 F-16 fighter jets will be activated if Chinese aircraft enter the adjacent region. F-16 Block 20 warplanes were seen loaded with air-to-air equipment at the Hualien air base in eastern Taiwan:
To emphasize how serious the situation is, Taiwan, for the very first time, deployed Anti-Ship Missiles on its coast, and raised the missile launchers into launch position!
#BREAKING
— World Crisis Tracker (@WorldCrisi19621) May 23, 2024
More from Taiwan’s response to Chinese training around the island:
Mobile launchers with Xiongfeng-3 anti-ship missiles of the Taiwan Armed Forces arrived in the position area, deployed on the ground and were brought into a firing position#Taiwan #china #war pic.twitter.com/0OQhWf4hei
Intelligence sources told me that at the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese Leader Xi Jinping, which took place in Beijing last week, military adventures were among the topics the two leaders discussed.
The Intelligence guys say that China sees Trump is making a very hard run for re-election, and they know they will not stand any chance of taking Taiwan if Trump gets back in. So they have to act before the US election in November.
China also knows that the US is seriously weakened now due to our supplying Ukraine with weaponry to fight Russia. So short of missiles is the United States Navy, that when a Destroyer or Missile Cruiser returns to port from sea duty, its missiles must be taken off the ship, to be placed on another ship which is going OUT to sea duty, because the US Navy does not have enough missiles to load all of its vessels!
Moreover, they say, Joe Biden is seen as a dementia-addled incompetent.
All these things add up to China making a move against Taiwan sooner rather than later.
The U.S. seeing what China is doing, has dispatched the USS Ronald Reagan Aircraft Carrier from its port in Japan. The Ronald Reagan set sail from Japan late Wednesday night, and arrived in the Philippine Sea on Thursday.
🚨Update: The USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier of the US Navy entered the Philippine Sea! pic.twitter.com/943r9fkgPY
— US Civil Defense News (@CaptCoronado) May 23, 2024
The vessel is within air strike range of Taiwan and the Chinese fleet surrounding Taiwan. But the Reagan is also now within range of China's hypersonic "ship killer" missiles.
Very dangerous things going on. Just one small mistake by anyone, could cause this to escalate into immediate war.
