Chinese jets in Taiwan: Airspace violation or precursor to Russia-like military operation?

Beijing [China], August 11 (ANI): The visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan can be termed as the culmination of the verbal duel that has been going on between the US and China over the last few days, amid questions if the intrusion of Chinese jets is just another case of airspace violation or a precursor to China's military operation in Taiwan.
Ever since Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022, there have been discussions on various forums about whether China would also take similar steps to enforce its sovereignty over Taiwan, The Singapore Post reported.
China's eagerness to launch a Russia-like military operation in Taiwan was evident on August 2, when 20 of its jets violated Taiwanese airspace as a mark of protest against the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who landed in Taipei on August 2.
The Chinese Defence Ministry spokesperson stated that China will carry out targeted military operations to counter the visit of Nancy Pelosi.
Addressing the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado on July 20, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief Bill Burns stated that Russia's experience in Ukraine is affecting China's calculations over Taiwan on how and when it may decide to invade.
He added that China was "unsettled" after looking at the war in Europe and Beijing is likely to have observed that a quick decisive victory will not be possible with an underwhelming force.
Burns added that the lessons China is drawing include the need to amass an overwhelming force, control the information space, and, bolster its economy against sanctions.
In the same forum, Qin Gang, the Chinese Ambassador to the US said that by increasing close political and military ties with Taiwan, the US is blurring out the "One China policy", The Singapore post reported.
Responding to a question on the CIA chief's comment that Russia's experience in Ukraine is making China rethink a potential invasion of Taiwan, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin urged the US side to face its responsibilities as the one that created the crisis and work actively toward resolving the issue.
He added that the Ukraine issue and the Taiwan question are fundamentally different and urged the US side to abide by the one-China principle and not to interfere in China's internal affairs.
Later, in an interview with The Atlantic on July 25, US National Security Advisor (NSA) Jake Sullivan expressed hope that a Russian defeat in Ukraine could save Taiwan from being annexed by China. According to him, part of the American objective in Ukraine is to show that strength and resilience could effectively deter others elsewhere.
Sullivan, however, added that China might be learning the wrong lessons from the Russian invasion by better preparing for a potential contingency involving Taiwan than getting deterred, The Singapore post reported.
Refuting American claims of a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan, China's Deputy Ambassador to the UN, Geng Shuang, during a meeting on Ukraine at the 15-member UN Security Council, accused the US of double standards for challenging Beijing's sovereignty over Taiwan while he emphasised the principle of sovereignty for Ukraine after Russia's military action in Ukraine.
A spokesperson for the US Mission to the UN, in response, dismissed China's comment as "an attempt to distract and deflect blame from the reality" and added that Russia's aggression against Ukraine is unacceptable under any circumstances, The Singapore post reported.
Meanwhile, in a recently held economic dialogue between the US and Japan, both countries affirmed that the coercive and retaliatory economic practices of China force countries into choices that compromise their security, their intellectual property and their economic independence, and referred to the Ukraine conflict as a serious challenge to the international order that is being exploited by China by way of using economic influence unfairly and opaquely to realize strategic interests and to modify the existing international order. (ANI)