[Epoch Times, July 30, 2022](The Epoch Times reporter Xia Yu comprehensive report) After the news of the potential visit of US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Nancy Pelosi) to Taiwan, the tension in the Asia-Pacific region has increased, and the US The USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier strike group of the Seventh Fleet was operating in the South China Sea, while Chinese warships peeked on.
The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan cruised about 185 kilometers (115 miles) near the disputed Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly Islands on Thursday (July 28), the South China Morning Post reported, according to publicly available satellite images. There are two other ships 27 kilometers and 23 kilometers away from the aircraft carrier.Vietnam Maritime Observer Duan DangDetermined to be China’s (CCP) Type 052D destroyer and Type 054A frigate.
US-China tit-for-tat mutual surveillance
The USS Ronald Reagan and its aircraft carrier strike group left Singapore on Monday for the South China Sea. Pelosi has so far not confirmed whether they are heading to Taiwan, but the news caused the CCP to jump and international attention. Beijing has threatened to face a “strong response” from the United States if Pelosi goes to Taiwan.
Pelosi has been referred to by Beijing as “the third person in the U.S. government” many times.
“The USS Ronald Reagan and its strike group are conducting operations in the South China Sea following a successful visit to the port of Singapore,” Commander Hayley Sims, 7th Fleet public affairs officer, told Reuters in a statement. said in the statement.
The USS Ronald Reagan strike group, which includes the USNS Tippecanoe supply tanker and the USS Antietam cruiser, would reach the Taiwan Strait if the strike group had been heading northeast.
Previously, the Chinese navy was conducting routine military exercises near the waters of Guangdong Province after conducting exercises in the waters near Hainan Province. According to a notice issued by the Chinese Maritime Safety Administration, the waters of the South China Sea, about 89 kilometers from Macau, will be closed to ships on Saturday for military exercises, and the Beibu Gulf in the east and west of Guangdong will also become a restricted area on Tuesday, and a shooting exercise will be conducted on Wednesday.
“Southern Morning” quoted Song Zhongping, a former Chinese military instructor, as saying that if Pelosi continues to travel to Taiwan, the US aircraft carrier battle group may provide her with escort. He says. Ahead of a potential visit, the U.S. will increase surveillance of activities around Taiwan — meaning the U.S. will deploy a large number of surveillance planes; the Chinese military will also keep a close eye on any U.S. aircraft and carrier strike groups. This is tit-for-tat mutual surveillance.
U.S. military fully prepared to escort Pelosi’s potential trip to Taiwan
While U.S. officials said they had little concern that Beijing would attack Pelosi’s plane, they realized that a mistake, mishandling or misunderstanding could jeopardize her safety, the Associated Press reported. So the Pentagon is developing a plan for any contingencies.
If Pelosi ultimately decides to visit Taiwan, the U.S. military will increase the flow of its troops and assets in the Indo-Pacific, officials told The Associated Press. They declined to provide details but said fighter jets, ships, surveillance equipment and other military systems could be used to provide multiple layers of protection for Pelosi’s plane and during her stay in Taiwan.
The U.S. already has a large presence of troops in the region, so any added security can largely be handled with assets in place.
The military must also prepare for any event, including a possible air or ground accident. The U.S. would need to have a rescue capability nearby, they said, suggesting that could involve helicopters from ships already deployed in the area.
U.S. officials said the administration expressed doubts that China would take direct action against Pelosi herself or try to sabotage the visit. But they did not rule out the possibility that if the visit took place, China could escalate provocative overflights of military aircraft in or near Taiwan’s airspace and conduct naval patrols in the Taiwan Strait. They do not rule out China’s actions elsewhere in the region to show its strength.
Democrats: What we should do has nothing to do with the CCP
Pelosi plans to lead a congressional delegation to Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore on Friday, NBC News reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources as saying the visit to Taiwan was listed as a “tentative” itinerary.
The Chinese embassy in the United States has urged members of Congress to tell Pelosi not to go. Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Washington), co-chair of the US-China Working Group in the U.S. House of Representatives, told CNN that the Chinese embassy is aggressively trying to block the trip to Taiwan. “What we should do has nothing to do with them (the CCP), this is my message.”
Larson said he met in Seattle on Monday with the Chinese consul general in San Francisco, who told Larson to dissuade Pelosi from traveling to Taiwan. “It’s not my job to tell the Speaker what to do or not to do,” Larson said. “She has a lot more experience with these things than I do. So, I’ll trust her judgment.”
“Whether to go to Taiwan is an independent decision by Speaker Pelosi, not any other country,” Larson’s Republican representative on the U.S.-China task force, Rep. Darin LaHood of Illinois, told CNN. In our democracy, we are equal to the government and operate independently.”
“It is inappropriate for a foreign government, including the Chinese government, to try to influence the ability or right of the Speaker, members of Congress, or other U.S. government officials to travel to Taiwan or anywhere else in the world,” Lahoud added.
Responsible editor: Ye Ziwei