'Rehearsing before invasion': Maj Gen GD Bakshi on China's recent provocation of Taiwan

Reacting to China's recent invasion into the Taiwanese territory, Retired Major General GD Bakshi called it is a "brazen attempt" to intimidate Taiwan as he claims that the Chinese government is conducting initial rehearsals for an actual invasion of the island nation. 

He further added that the repeated provocations by the Chinese side can also be an aim to desensitize their enemy's defences so that the Taiwan forces become accustomed to a repeated pattern of invasions by China and thus become unalert. Meanwhile, his statements came in the backdrop of the recent attempts by the Chinese side when their 10 military aircraft entered the southwest sector of Taiwan's air defence identification zone (ADIZ) on Saturday. 

"It is only a matter of seconds when the Chinese aircraft are over Taiwan as they come to the edge of the air defence identification zone further testing the defence forces. They are just trying to degrade the defence capabilities by such repeatative provocations", he added. 

Further referring to a recent survey carried out on Taiwanese people, retired Gen Major GD Bakshi said that a maximum number of people believe that a war with China is inevitable as they are just are "playacting" to build military pressure. Also, proclaiming that the repeated provocations can trigger a major clash between both the countries, he said that the military capabilities of China and Taiwan are a mismatch.

"In case, China decides to go into a clash, the Taiwan government can only try to seek time by multiple attempts so that they can seek the intervention of the US government followed by the entry of other countries including Japan, Australia, and other European unions. Whether it is just practice of repeated military pressure or pre-war practice is just a matter of time", he said. 

China's continuous attempts to invade Taiwan

Earlier on Saturday, 10 military aircrafts including 8 Shenyang J-16 fighter planes, one Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft, and one Shaanxi Y-8 entered the air defence identification zone of Taiwan. Concerning the same, radio warnings were also issued by the Taiwan government, while aircraft and defence missile systems were deployed for monitoring the Chinese planes. 

In a similar attempt earlier, two Chinese military aircraft entered Taiwan's air defence identification zone on Wednesday followed by another invasion on Friday when 11 Chinese planes flew into the ADIZ. 

Despite the fact that China and Taiwan have been ruled separately for the past seven decades, China continues to claim its sovereignty over Taiwan, which is a democracy with almost 24 million inhabitants. On the other hand, Taiwan, which has also resisted China's aggression, is strengthening its strategic connection with democracies, especially the United States.

Image: AP/ANI