The Chinese authorities have decided to put their money where their mouth is, following the declarations of its Defense Minister Wei Fenghe, during the Shangri-La Defense meetings, which we have already reported on. In addition to the very timely test of the new SLBM[efn_note]Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile[/efn_note] which took place at the beginning of the week, the PLA[efn_note]People's Liberation Army[/efn_note] presented to the public, and especially to some representatives of the press, a battery of DF21 ballistic missiles, presented as anti-ship weapons, or AShBM[efn_note]Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile[/efn_note], and capable, according to Beijing, of reaching and destroying a Carrier planes at a distance of 1500 km, enough to reach a US Navy aircraft carrier if it were to provide assistance to Taiwan. Remember that China also has the DF26 missile, given to have the same capabilities as the DF21, but with a range of 4500 km. Despite Chinese declarations, there remain doubts about the real capacity that its missiles would have to reach a moving target, even one as large as an aircraft carrier. But recent statements from the Chinese Ministry of Defense seem to provide credible answers in this area.
The staging of the presentation, missiles erected in a line, leaves no doubt as to the message they were to convey, nor about Beijing's growing determination to keep Washington away from what it considers to be an internal rebellion. .
Tensions around the independent island of Taiwan have continued to increase in recent months, with Beijing having profoundly changed its discourse towards it, moving from threats of economic reprisals in the event of military support to Taipei, to now explicit threats of reprisals. military. And there is now little doubt that despite the difficulties that the PLA would encounter in the event of a possible military operation against the island, Beijing, and its President Xi Jinping, are determined to bring Taiwan back into the national fold in the short or medium term.
As we also discussed, this demonstration of Chinese forces also shows the confidence that the regime now has in its military power, and in its ability to neutralize American military power if necessary. To ensure that the message got across, the PLA also published an article covering precisely this point on the state website Global Times.