Chicom aggression in Taiwan Straights

 The Hill:

China is taking aggressive new actions in the Taiwan Strait, escalating Beijing’s routine harassment in the international waterway at a low point in diplomatic relations between Beijing and Washington.

U.S. officials and experts say confrontations between Chinese and American military planes and ships in the region are unavoidable, but the instance of a Chinese warship overtaking a U.S. destroyer earlier this week in the Strait is almost unprecedented.

“​​In the Taiwan Strait, it certainly is new,” said Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the German Marshall Fund’s Indo-Pacific program.

“Maybe this has been happening in the South China Sea, but in the Taiwan Strait, the Chinese generally shadow U.S. ships, they get on the comms and tell them to leave — but I know of no prior case of that kind of dangerous maneuver.”

In a video of the incident, the Chinese naval ship overtakes the U.S. destroyer and crosses the bow with 150 yards between the ships, according to U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.

Experts say it’s unclear why China decided to carry out such a provocation — whether they were reacting to U.S. support for Taiwan, attempting to distract from domestic troubles, or peacocking during a high-profile defense summit in the region.

“Fundamentally, this is really about power and political signaling,” said Peter Dutton, professor with the Stockton Center for International Law at the U.S. Naval War College.

“The Chinese know the law, they understand the collision regulations, they understand exactly what they’re doing, so it’s unusual in the sense that they are engaging in dangerous behavior in order to send political and power-base signals.”

Tensions between the U.S. and China have flared in recent months — over the U.S. shooting down a Chinese spy balloon and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif) meeting with Taiwan’s president — and show little sign of improving.
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China wants to subjugate the free people of Taiwan and it sees the US as a problem in achieving that goal.  It should also be pretty obvious that the people of Taiwan do not want to be ruled by the Chicoms.  Many of them fled China to avoid that.