US Urges China to Halt Pressure on Taiwan Amid Gray Zone Activities
Quick Look
- A US official urged China to cease pressuring Taiwan, citing increased "gray zone" activities aimed at undermining Taiwan's societal resilience before its 2028 presidential election.
- China's actions, including incursions into restricted waters, are seen as a substitute for direct conflict.
AI-generated summary
A US official urged China to stop exerting pressure on Taiwan, while a think tank expert said the increasing “gray zone” activities conducted by China in the past few years are aimed at undermining Taiwan’s societal resilience — a core objective for Beijing between now and Taiwan’s presidential election in 2028.
The comments were made yesterday in response to China’s “gray zone” activities in the Taiwan Strait, a day after the coast guard said five Beijing-controlled ships were expelled from restricted waters surrounding the nation.
The Chinese government has cited the negotiations between Japan and the Philippines to delimit their exclusive economic zones in the waters east of Taiwan proper as justification for the patrols.
A US Department of State spokesperson told the state-run Central News Agency （CNA） in an e-mail received yesterday that the US supports the effort of Japan and the Philippines, which are US allies, and urges Beijing to resolve disputes peacefully, not with coercion or armed force.
“We call on Beijing to stop exerting military, diplomatic and economic pressure on Taiwan, and conduct meaningful dialogue with the democratically elected leadership of Taiwan,” CNA quoted them as saying.
Separately, Foundation for Defense of Democracies researcher Craig Singleton, who is also a former diplomat, said Beijing appears to employ “gray zone” tactics as a substitute for an all-out conflict.
Beijing uses ambiguous phrases such as administrative law enforcement actions to describe its behavior instead of others with ramifications in international law, Singleton said.
Parsing words serves to obfuscate the nature of China’s hostile acts that target Taiwan and undermine regional stability, he said.
Washington needs to do more to check Beijing-directed incursions of Taiwan’s restricted waters, Singleton said.
Beijing has significantly intensified its “gray zone” operations to include intruding into Taiwan’s restricted airspace or waters, cyberattacks on infrastructure and disinformation aimed at chipping away the nation’s resilience, he said.
This would remain China’s goal until the 2028 presidential election, Singleton said.
