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USS Bataan and other U.S. Navy warships participate in a simulated straight transit during an exercise.
(Image by Official U.S. Navy Imagery) Details DMCA
The US has thrown down the gauntlet. A showdown may come "in the coming weeks," if sanity does not prevail.
White House and Pentagon spokesmen keep insisting, as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl did on Aug. 14:
"What's important for us right now is to make sure that Beijing understands that our forces in the region will continue to operate, to fly, to sail, wherever international waters allows. That includes the Taiwan Strait.
I think you should expect that we will continue to do Taiwan Strait transits, as we have in the past, in the coming weeks."
What About President Biden?
Not to worry. To the degree it matters, he seems relaxed. On Aug. 8, after China announced new post-Pelosi-visit military drills in the seas and airspace around Taiwan, Biden expressed mild concern about China's deployments, but spoke reassuringly to reporters:
"I'm concerned they (the Chinese) are moving as much as they are," but I don't think they're going to do anything more than they are."
Is Biden Listening to His Own PR People, and
Here is White House Strategic Communications Director John Kirby at a briefing on August 1:
"Nothing has changed - nothing has changed - about our One China policy. Put simply, there is no reason for Beijing to turn a potential visit [by Pelosi] into some sort of crisis or conflict, or use it as a pretext to increase aggressive military activity in or around the Taiwan Strait. [Emphasis added.]
And yet, over the weekend, even before Speaker Pelosi arrived in the region, China conducted a live-fire exercise. China appears to be positioning itself to potentially take further steps in the coming days and perhaps over longer time horizons.
Now, these potential steps could also include actions in the diplomatic and economic space, such as further spurious legal claims, like Beijing's public assertions last month that the Taiwan Strait is not an international waterway. [Emphasis added.]
Some of these actions would continue concerning trendlines but some could be of a different scope and scale."
and is Kirby Listening to the Bobbsey Twins?
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