The new US administration is already embroiled in the simmering conflicts in the Far East.
An American aircraft carrier has entered the South China Sea.
China's military aircraft test Taiwan's air defenses.
Joe Biden
has dealt with conflict in East Asia from the start and supports allies.
The US is calling on
China
to stop militarily harassing Taiwan.
Beijing criticizes the dispatch of the
US aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt
to the South China Sea.
Washington DC / Beijing - A week after taking office, has the
President US Joe Biden new
already
deep into the years of frozen conflicts in the Far East
plunge.
It is about overlapping
territorial claims in the South China Sea
and
pressure from China on Taiwan.
In several phone calls, Biden and his security officials reaffirmed their rejection of Chinese territorial claims in the region to their allies Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and the Philippines.
Last weekend, Biden called on China to stop militarily harassing Taiwan.
Biden pledged support to
Japanese Prime Minister
Yoshihide Suga
in defending his territory - including the Senkaku archipelago, which is disputed between Japan, China and Taiwan.
In parallel to diplomacy
, China and the US are flexing their military muscles.
In the South China Sea this week, a
naval force that had been
dispatched
by the
Trump administration and led
by the US aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt
arrived in the sea area as part of the exercise "Freedom of Navigation".
China claims almost the entire body of water - but Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines and Malaysia also claim it.
For some years now, Beijing has been setting up military bases there on raised reefs.
Shortly before, eight Chinese bombers and four fighter planes
had penetrated
Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ)
and tested the air defense - Taiwan's armed forces announced on Saturday.
So far, both sides have described their maneuvers as
pure routine
.
Military maneuvers: routine or trial of strength between China, the USA and other neighboring countries?
It is correct that
China
regularly sends air maneuvers near Taiwan and
the USA
regularly sends ships to the region.
There have been tensions in the South China Sea.
Nevertheless, the maneuvers could be
signs of a test of strength
.
With a new administration in the US, both Beijing and its US allies in Asia may be testing Biden's positions.
So far
, Biden remains tough;
the positions of his administration so far do not differ from those of the Trump administration.
Biden and the US State Department called on China to stop militarily harassing Taiwan and called on both sides to engage in dialogue.
These language regulations have long been in use.
But
Donald Trump
was the first US president
to allow official contacts with Taiwanese government officials
- a red rag for Beijing.
The fact that Biden had officially invited Taiwan's representative in Washington to his inauguration is a sign that he will continue to pursue this line of his predecessor.
Beijing was naturally angry.
China also
rejects criticism of its actions against Taiwan.
Foreign Office spokesman Zhao Lijian
called on the US on Friday not to send "the wrong signals" to Taiwan's independence forces - so as not to damage relations between China and the US.
With a view to the
South China Sea
, Zhao urged the new US administration not to start a dispute.
Beijing hopes that both sides can cooperate and deal with their differences "in a spirit of non-confrontation".
"It is not good for regional peace and stability when the US sends military ships and aircraft into the South China Sea so often to flex its muscles," said Zhao.
The US Navy justifies the operation of the
USS Theodore Roosevelt
in the South China Sea with the fact that the aircraft carrier group advocates freedom of navigation in the important sea area
through which two thirds of world trade are transported
.
The international court of arbitration in The Hague had already rejected China's claims in 2016, which Beijing has ignored to this day.
Joe Biden: "Rock Solid" support for Taiwan
In his first statement on Taiwan, the new US President Joe Biden
Taipei had promised his "rock solid" support
.
The US security guarantee is, in Taiwan’s own opinion, vital to its survival.
For example, the Taipei government is closely monitoring what the US is saying about arms exports.
According to a report in the
Taipei Times newspaper
on Friday
, the foreign ministry there
noted
with relief
that although the US was suspending arms deliveries to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, it did not mention Taiwan in the context.
Trump had promised Taiwan
extensive arms shipments four years ago
, including eleven M142 artillery rocket launchers with high mobility, 100 harpoon coastal defense systems and four MQ-9B unmanned aerial vehicles.
Even if
Taiwan was never a part of the People's Republic
, Beijing regards the democratically ruled island as a
“breakaway province”
and part of its territory.
Beijing has never ruled out the possibility of reunification, if necessary by force.
At the end of the civil war with the communists, the defeated fighters of the nationalist Kuomintang party had withdrawn to the island in 1949.
For decades they ruled the island, which lies around 160 kilometers from the mainland, with a hard hand.
It was not until 1987 that the Kuomintang repealed martial law and began a
gradual democratization.
The Kuomintang also gave up the long-cherished claim to the whole of China.
Since the recognition of the People's Republic of China in the 1970s, Taiwan has only been de facto independent.
In 1992 both sides agreed to
the so-called “one China principle”
.
So there is only one China, but it allows both sides to interpret this China differently.
So far, all sides have kept this status quo.
(ck / dpa / AFP)
