The commander of Taiwan's navy says that China is "squeezing Taiwan like an anaconda." In an interview with The Economist, Admiral Tang Hua explained how the People's Liberation Army's increasing frequency, proximity and periods of air and sea incursions around Taiwan demonstrates Beijing's slow but sure attempts to isolate it from the rest of the world.
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00:00China is strangling Taiwan like an anaconda. That's the analogy used by Taiwan's Navy
00:07Commander Tang Hua in an interview with The Economist, as he explains Beijing's increasing
00:12attempts to isolate Taiwan.
00:14China is slowly but surely tightening around Taiwan, increasing the number of incursions
00:20across the Taiwan Strait median line and also the proximity and length of time that they're
00:25spending around the country. At the beginning of 2024 in January, there were 36 air incursions,
00:33up to 193 in August alone, sea incursions 142 in January, almost doubling in August.
00:40Previously, the PLA, China's People's Liberation Army, mostly operated to the south and west
00:47of Taiwan, but after Nancy Pelosi's visit in August of 2022, they made a huge blockade
00:54around the whole country, including off Taiwan's east. And after Lai Ching-de's inauguration
01:00as president in May of 2024, another huge blockade drill, including around outlying
01:06islands, some of which are just kilometres off the coast of China, really demonstrating
01:12how far China is willing to go to completely cut Taiwan off from the rest of the world.
01:18Admiral Tang Hua added that the PLA is trying to force Taiwan to make mistakes, but Taiwan
01:24is trying to strike a balance between responding but not further provoking China. Some defence
01:30analysts say that these drills are a gift for Taiwan as they're showing Taiwan exactly
01:35what China is going to do if it comes to a full blockade. It's also leading Taiwan to
01:41look into how it can improve its communications infrastructure, potentially developing its
01:47own version of Elon Musk's Starlink to keep the country online in case of a full blockade.
01:54But it's also putting strain on Taiwan's military. Defence researchers say that Taiwan's had
01:58to deploy up to 50 percent of its vessels just to counter Chinese patrols, and that
02:05half of Taiwan's warships are behind on maintenance. And with the admirals saying that China is
02:11ready to blockade Taiwan at any moment, the pressure's on for Taiwan to make sure it's
02:16ready as soon as possible.