Only three days after Joe Biden took office, according to US intelligence, Chinese military fighters simulated missile attacks on a US aircraft carrier in the Taiwan air defense zone.
On 23 January, the Chinese army sent 11 aircraft to the southwestern area of the Taiwan air defense zone and another 15 aircraft to the same area the next day.
Intelligence said Beijing's bombers and some fighter jets conducted a drill that used a group of US Navy ships led by the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt as a simulated target.
The radio intercepts revealed that the pilots of the H-6 bombers were exchanging instructions on that “targeting” with anti-ship missiles.
In the South China Sea and around Taiwan, the muscular confrontation between the two superpowers is always alive, waiting to learn about the new foreign policy of the new US president Biden. According to some Chinese analysts, Trump's was too "chaotic".
Chinese development of missiles capable of targeting US ships and aircraft in the region has helped thwart US military dominance in Asia and the Western Pacific. However, Chinese experts said that Beijing is unwilling to risk an open conflict with the United States.
The area where the Taiwan Defense reported the raids last weekend is located between Pratas, an atoll in Taiwan in the northern part of the South China Sea, and Taiwan, where the Taiwan Strait meets the Bashi Channel, a main passage between the western Pacific and the South China Sea.
"Chinese Su-30 fighters can carry Kh-31 anti-ship missiles, and H-6 bombers and J-16 fighters can both carry YJ anti-tip missiles"He said About Tzu-yun, an analyst at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a think-tank supported by the Taiwan Ministry of Defense. "All three planes are clearly a show of strength and a threat to surface ships ”.
On 23 January, the Indo-Pacific Command of the United States confirmed the air raid in the South China Sea towards US ships and aircraft carriers; according to the ship's tracking data, the operation took place close to the Bashi Canal.
The Chinese air maneuvers forced the new US administration to intervene: "We ask Beijing to stop its military, diplomatic and economic pressure against Taiwan ", the US State Department said, before adding that China should remember that Washington's relationship with Taipei is "rock solid."
Biden sent another message to China reaffirming the U.S. commitment to help Japan defend the Senkaku Islands, which are administered by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing, which calls them Diaoyu.