https://twitter.com/ZackCooper/status/1528685573480775682
Tweet of the Day: Is Strategic Ambiguity Dead?
May 25, 2022
| The Chinese and Russians are apparently trying to show the ROK how united they are after President Biden’s trip to Korea and Japan:
“Prior to their entry into the KADIZ, our military deployed Air Force fighters to conduct tactical steps in preparation against potential accidental situations,” the JCS said in a text message sent to reporters.
At 7:56 a.m., two Chinese H-6 bombers entered the KADIZ from an area 126 kilometers northwest of Ieodo, a submerged rock south of the southern island of Jeju, according to the JCS. They moved toward the East Sea and exited the zone at around 9:33 a.m.
Later, the two Chinese warplanes joined four Russian warplanes, including two TU-95 bombers, and entered the KADIZ together at 9:58 a.m. They then left the zone at 10:15 a.m.
At around 3:40 p.m., four Chinese and two Russian military aircraft were spotted flying in an area some 267 km southeast of Ieodo — outside the KADIZ — the JCS said.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
In the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it is likely a good thing to let the Chinese know exactly where the U.S. stands if they try and attack Taiwan:
President Joe Biden, speaking Monday during his first visit presidential visit to Japan, signaled an apparent end to the U.S. policy of strategic ambiguity by saying the United States would defend Taiwan against a Chinese invasion.
“Yes,” Biden replied when asked by a reporter in Tokyo if he was willing to get involved militarily to defend the island.
“That’s the commitment we made,” he said at a press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
The U.S. has maintained a “One China policy” that acknowledges Beijing’s claim of sovereignty over Taiwan. However, the policy doesn’t give China the right to use force to take over the island, Biden said.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link.
What a massive screw up this is:
A television news channel in Taiwan apologized after erroneously reporting on Wednesday that China had launched an invasion just outside the capital Taipei, triggering alarm online.
Taipei-based Chinese Television Systems, a TV network partially owned by the Taiwanese government, ran a ticker along the bottom of the screen at 7 a.m. local time on Wednesday saying that China had attacked several areas of New Taipei City.
“New Taipei City has been hit by a Chinese Communist guided missile. Ships in Taipei Port have exploded, damaging facilities,” the graphic read. “Banqiao Station is reported to have been set on fire by explosives placed by special forces.”
The station issued an on-air apology a few hours later, explaining that the chyron had been produced for a New Taipei City Fire Department disaster-prevention video and broadcast due to a production error. CTS later announced an investigation into what it called “gross negligence,” pledging in a text message to severely punish any staff found to be responsible.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link.
The ADIZ incursions happened reportedly last month before North Korea’s ICBM test:
Russian and Chinese military aircraft entered South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ) without prior notice last month ahead of North Korea’s long-range missile launch, a Seoul official said Tuesday.
Two Russian planes flew into the KADIZ on March 24, prompting South Korea’s military to scramble its fighters to prevent their approach to the country’s airspace, according to the official.
The incident came just hours before Pyongyang test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into the East Sea — a launch that ended its yearslong moratorium on nuclear and ICBM testing.
The Russian warplanes flew in the KADIZ northwest of South Korea’s Ulleung Island in the East Sea at around 11 a.m. and moved out of it 30 minutes later.
A day earlier, a Chinese military plane also entered the KADIZ near Ieo Islet, a submerged rock south of South Korea’s southern resort island of Jeju. The official said the area was where the air defense identification zones of South Korea and China overlapped.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but China has been claiming Ieodo as their territory and have been flying bombers over it in response for years. The Russians have often had Korean ADIZ incursions and even actively violated Korean airspace over Dokdo before that led to warning shots from the ROK Air Force.
Incoming ROK President-Elect Yoon Suk-yeol campaigned on purchasing a second THAAD battery to defend South Korea. The Chinese are making veiled threats if South Korea decides to purchase a missile defense system to defend themselves with in the face of North Korea increasingly testing new missiles. If North Korea wasn’t regularly threatening the ROK with missiles it would not need a THAAD battery in the first place:
South Korea will hazard its improving relationship with China if it deploys a second American-made missile defense battery, China’s ambassador in Seoul implied Thursday.
The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, is a sensitive topic in relations between the two countries, and South Korea “should not be treading in that step again,” Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Xing Haiming said in a speech Thursday at the Millennium Hilton Seoul hotel, according to news reports the next day. (………..)
Xing, speaking at an event hosted by the Institute for Global Strategy and Cooperation, described China-South Korea relations as “really bad” following the THAAD deployment. They had “recovered the right track because the two nations made joint efforts,” he said Thursday.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link.
Here is a new propaganda angle Chinese state media is using to deflect blame for the recent COVID spread in China:
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has expressed regret over Chinese state-run media depicting clothes imported from Korea as the possible source of COVID-19 infections in China.
Korea Times
“China has recently stepped up quarantine measures not only on clothes they import from South Korea but also for almost all imported goods from other countries,” a ministry official told reporters, Thursday. “But some government offices or Chinese state-run media are failing to properly explain the whole context of the matter and, therefore, are making inappropriate and inconsiderate remarks, which is not desirable in terms of Korea-China relations.
You can read more at the link, but with the state control of the media people in China are very likely to believe this nonsense.