Commentary
It appears that the Chinese regime is incrementally increasing the scope and scale of its challenges to the sovereignty of Taiwan in addition to the continuous air and naval activity since December 2022, when President Joe Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The new law was replete with strong statements of support for Taiwan.
China has continued to assert that Taiwan has become a base for American military forces with the NDAA, a follow-up trade agreement between Taiwan and the United States. And now, new Taiwan proposals by Congress are heightening the tenacity of Chinese histrionics.
China has introduced high-endurance drones to complement manned aircraft and operate independently to provide an omnipresent specter of presence around Taiwan. This was helpful during the Balikatan 23 exercises, where Chinese aircraft could conduct a maintenance reset after four months of increased flight operations tempo. The focus of the Chinese drone campaign seemed to be the Eastern shore of Taiwan facing the deep and broad Pacific—the most likely approach for ships and aircraft arriving to help resupply Taiwan in case the regime goes to the next step in attempting to constrict and asphyxiate Taiwan from the outside world….