How China would cut Taiwan off
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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First Taiwan Strait Crisis
11 min read
Provides essential historical context for current tensions, showing how Taiwan Strait confrontations have played out militarily since 1954-1955 when China shelled Taiwanese islands and the US intervened
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United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 (XXVI)
14 min read
Directly referenced in the article as China's legal justification for claiming authority over Taiwan - understanding this 1971 resolution is crucial to grasping the diplomatic complexities of the conflict
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The sound of the ocean reminds most people of peace and silence.
However, as one of the most hostile waters in the world, the Taiwan Strait has been neither peaceful nor silent for a while.
In September 2022, the Taiwanese Coast Guard sent a warning to the Chinese Coast Guard for getting too close to Taiwanese waters.
The Chinese yelled back, explicitly: “Motherf*cker. You are an idiot”.
An exclusive recording of radio communications between the Taiwanese and Chinese Coast Guards, obtained by The Counteroffensive. It captures the exchange described above.
These kinds of tensions between the two coast guards have become routine since 2022, when the former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, visited Taiwan, which China claims to be part of its territory. Right after Pelosi departed, the Chinese army upped its aggression, including starting a military exercise.
The provocative actions continued, not only to intimidate the Taiwanese but also to set up a possible future operation: a blockade of Taiwan.
According to the Ministry of Taiwan’s monitoring system, Chinese aircrafts are detected crossing the middle line of the Taiwan Strait every day. Most of the time, they are accompanied by Chinese naval battleships. These moves are silent to the Taiwanese public, but U.S. wargaming shows how quickly they could escalate. A CSIS study that ran 26 blockade wargames found that “almost all scenarios entailed casualties.”
If China took control of the Taiwan Strait, it could pose a significant national security threat to Taiwan, accelerating the pace of taking over the island. A blockade in the Taiwan Strait wouldn’t just disrupt chip trade, with Taiwan as the world’s leading supplier.
It could push the world into its deepest political divide since the Cold War.
Jack Yu, now 37 and living in Taipei, used to dream of becoming a chef. But he failed to reach the required score on his college entry test. His uncle, who had been a sailor for decades, suggested another option — joining a ship’s crew. It could promise Jack Yu a more
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