US signal to China: Stay away from Taiwan during Ukraine crisis

Since the US-Russia escalation over Ukraine has started, many believed that this would give President Xi Jinping a free pass to aggressively pursue what China calls its core interests.

Published on: Jan 24, 2022, 08:58:13 IST

By Shishir Gupta, Hindustan Times, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

With two nuclear powered aircraft carrier strike groups patrolling the Philippines Sea and another one forwardly deployed to Yokosuka, Japan, the US has sent a strong message to China to stay away from Taiwan while the former is locked with Russia over Ukraine.

Fifth generation F-35s take off from USS Carl Vinson and Abraham Lincoln in the Philippines Sea to send a deterrence message to aggressive China.

The PLA on Sunday responded to the massive US naval drills by sending as many as 39 warplanes, largely fighters like J-10 and J-16, into Taiwan’s south-western air defense identification zone (ADIZ) as tensions escalated over the breakaway island country. The Taiwan air force resumed combat air patrol and activated surface to air missile systems to deter the aggressive PLA Air Force. This is the first time after October 2021 that the PLA has responded to US drills with so many fighters.

This large-scale Taiwan airspace transgression by Chinese fighter took place when the US Navy has three aircraft carrier strike groups in support of Taipei and freedom of navigation operations in Philippines Sea. While USS Carl Vinson and Abraham Lincoln are patrolling near Taiwan, the USS Ronald Reagan is on standby near Yokosuka in Japan. The US has also large scale marine presence with presence of USS Essex amphibious ready group and USS America expeditionary strike group joining the aircraft carriers. Patrolling with the massive carrier force is Japanese Hyuga class helicopter destroyer with USS strike groups deploying as many as 26 F-35 fifth generation fighters.

The US Navy build-up near Taiwan is a clear message to China that it cannot have a free pass to Taipei while Washington is locked up in a confrontation with Russia over Ukraine. “The message to China is that US has not taken off its eyes from Beijing and wants PLA to stay away from Taiwan till such time the Ukraine crisis gets resolved,” said a former Indian ambassador to US.

Since the US-Russia escalation over Ukraine has started, many believed that this would give President Xi Jinping a free pass to aggressively pursue what China calls its core interests. The Biden administration has this month already conveyed to China that it is watching PLA build-up in Ladakh as the India-China stand-off on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) completes second winter on Tibetan plateau.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shishir Gupta
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.Read More

Get the latest World News, breaking headlines and global updates from the US, UK, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Russia and other countries. Follow major international events on Hindustan Times.