New Delhi: China has been increasing the number and extent of fighter jet, bomber and surveillance flights into Taiwan’s Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ). The People’s Liberation Army’s Navy(PLAN) continuously sails warships and its aircraft carrier through the Taiwan Strait, while U.S. Navy Carrier Battle Groups move through the area in regular freedom of navigation exercises and its vessels conduct drills with partners in the South and East China Seas. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) also uses a number of coercive tactics just under the armed conflict threshold like cyber attacks, and non-military tactics to try and fatigue the Taiwanese island’s defenders. On ‘The Gist’, Dr Raymond Kuo, a political scientist and author of ‘Contests of Initiative: Confronting China’s Grey Zone Strategy’ discusses Beijing using its ‘coercive but sub-conventional military power’ and outlines ‘three courses of action for the U.S. and its Asian security partners to preserve regional peace, uphold freedom of the seas, and deter conflict.’ In conversation with StratNews Global Associate Editor Amitabh P. Revi, the former foreign policy strategist at the UN and in Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party also analyses U.S., Japanese and Indian foreign policy vis-a-vis Beijing and Taipei and the possibility and ramifications of Taiwan being a flashpoint for conflict in the region.
