Trouble Brewing in East Asia

"The more preparations we make, the less likely there will be rash attempts of aggression."

"The more united we are, the stronger and safer Taiwan would become."

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-won

"We [United States] will continue to assist Taiwan in maintaining a sufficient self defence capability in line with our long-standing commitments and consistent with our one China policy."

White House National Security Council

Aircraft of the Eastern Theater Command during a prior drill near Taiwan in August. Pic: Xinhua /AP

The entire region of East Asia shows indication of an uneasy peace slowly unravelling. North Korea sent drones  across its heavily fortified border with South Korea, with the South responding by scrambling fighter jets, flying surveillance and firing warning shots in deterrence. For the first time in five years a fresh escalation of tensions has erupted of an intensity that strikes concern, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff. 

Attack helicopters were dispatched along with fighter jets to shoot down the drones. Several days earlier two short-range ballistic missiles were fired at the South. This is North Korea's method of protesting its displeasure at joint air drills carried out betwen South Korea and the United States; a rehearsal for an invasion, interpreted by North Korea. "Our military will thoroughly and resolutely respond to this kind of North Korea provation", director of operations Major General Lee Seung-o of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff stated emphatically.

"[U.S. officials are] consulting closely with the [Republic of Korea] about the nature of this incursion. We recoggnize the need of the ROK to protect its territorial integrity", noted an unnamed White House National Security official. Taiwan, South Korea nervous of the intentions of China and North Korea. Joining them is Japan, edgily watching what is happening in its neighbourhood and fearing that it too is in North Korea's and China's crosshairs.

Tokyo is considering the possibility of a nuclear attack to match the growing fears of a potentially full-on conflict with either North Korea or China. Japan, the only nation on Earth that has ever suffered a nuclear attack, saw its cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki both devastated in the wake of the Second World War when nuclear devices were unleashed on an unsuspecting, still war-defiant nation. Suddenly a soaring business has taken off of nuclear shelter sales in Japan.

In Taiwan, in a 24-hour-period, 71 Chinese military aircraft. among them fighter jets and drones, entered Taiwan's air defence zone, to date the largest reported incursion. The Taiwan Straits saw 43 aircraft cross the median line, the unofficial buffer separating the two sides. Throughout the steady increase of aggressive intimidation that Beijing tqrgets Taipei with, this is yet the most emphatic. According to Beijing these were 'strike drills'.

Beijing was merely responding to 'provocations' from Taiwan and the United States. The latter intervening in territory not its own, the former spurning Beijing's wish for reunifiction, to take independent sovereign Taiwan back under its wing. The drills saw the Chinese air force dispatch warplanes from several locales across the country for simulated attacks on Taiwanese and U.S. warships. 

The situation has compelled Taiwan to change the service tenure of its compulsory military service from the current four months to a year, to deal with rising tensions linked to Beijing's military pressure. Taiwan's southern air defence identification zone saw Chinese electronic-warfare and antisubmarine aircraft incursions along with drones. Repeated missions by the Chinese air force of the last two years has given Taipei reason for vigilance. In response to the latest incursion, Taiwan sent combat aircraft to warn off the Chinese planes, with missile systems monitoring their flight.