Click "Kunlun Policy Research Institute" above to follow this account; click "..." in the top right corner to select the reading function, and the voice is automatically synthesized by the computer, which is inevitably wrong and is only for auxiliary reading.

[On March 26, 2024, Tang Hua and Tsai Ing-wen jointly attended the "Delivery Ceremony of the Taiwan Military's Self-Made Tuojiang-Class Stealth Frigate" at the Port of Yilan in Taiwan. Sources revealed that it was technical support provided by the US military.]

On April 4, 2024, Ksliu, a well-known U.S. current affairs commentator, sent a VOA article,"Taiwan Navy Commander Says What should we do to strengthen the First Island Chain to deter Taiwan during his visit to the United States this week?" Tang Hua, commander of the Taiwan Navy, will visit the United States this week, attracting the attention of the international military community. Analysts said that in addition to symbolizing the escalation of U.S. -Taiwan military exchanges, Tang Hua's visit is also close to the summit of the leaders of the United States, Japan and the Philippines aimed at strengthening maritime military cooperation in the first island chain. They said that in the face of China's military threat, Taiwan should actively cooperate with neighboring allies to build a "common combat image."

Reuters reported on March 29 that Tang Hua will go to the United States this week to participate in activities such as the handover ceremony of the U.S. Pacific Fleet command. It is part of the U.S."Joint Island Defense Concept" plan, which aims to coordinate with other "first island chain" countries such as Taiwan and Japan to confront the People's Liberation Army within this line of defense. The latest U.S. defense authorization includes training for Taiwanese soldiers.

A Taiwanese-American military expert who declined to be named due to the sensitive issue told VOA on April 1 that information he had from US channels confirmed that Tang Hua had indeed traveled to the United States. he said:"This is a routine visit to the United States by Taiwan's military commanders." After Tang Hua took office in May 2023, he was originally scheduled to visit the United States at the end of last year, but it has been delayed for some reason. Due to the sensitivity of the matter, Taiwan's national security sources did not respond to VOA's request for comment on Tang Hua's visit to the United States.

Taiwan should strengthen cooperation with the Democratic Alliance to safeguard Indo-Pacific security

The defense of the first island chain is also a military issue of great concern to Taiwan's "President-elect" Lai Ching-te. According to a press release issued by the Taiwan Presidential Office on April 2, Lai Ching-teh and his Vice President-elect Hsiao Mei-kam went to the "Joint Operations Command Center" of Taiwan's Ministry of Defense and the military that afternoon to listen to the "National Defense Work Report" and familiarize themselves with the combat readiness operation mechanism and real-time dynamics of sea and air conditions. Lai Qingde pointed out at the meeting that Taiwan is in a key position in the first island chain. Faced with China's authoritarian expansion, it should continue to strengthen its national defense capabilities and work closely with democratic allies to jointly safeguard security and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific region., he said, this is a "crucial and urgent task."

Regarding Tang Hua's trip to the United States, Wang Dingyu, a member of the Democratic Progressive Party legislator of the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee of the Legislative Yuan of Taiwan, believes that it should be related to the recent thinking on international security cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region. He said that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will go to Washington on April 10 to attend the US-Japan summit. The key agenda is the upgrade of US-Japan security regulations.

Worried that "Taiwan is in trouble" Japan strengthens 16 airports and ports

The Japanese government announced on April 1 that as part of strengthening defense, it will designate a total of 16 strongholds in 7 Dao City, including Hokkaido and Okinawa, as "special use of airports and harbors" for the Self-Defense Forces and the Coast Guard in case of emergencies. Starting this year, it will spend 37 billion yen (about 244 million US dollars) to extend runways and build docks to facilitate the operation of military aircraft and warships.

Japan's Kyodo News reported that Japan's improvement of these facilities is due to concerns about China's maritime military activities and "Taiwan's troubles."

Wang Dingyu said that Japan's move was in response to its "Taiwan military push" held last year. The results showed that if Japan opened its civil airports to the US military, it would effectively increase the "failure rate" of China and Taiwan.

In addition, the leaders of the United States, Japan and the Philippines will also hold their first trilateral summit on April 11. According to the US magazine Politico, the summit may announce that the three countries plan to conduct joint patrols in the South China Sea to counter China's rise of force.

Wang Dingyu said that in recent years, the United States has leased nine new bases in the Philippines and deployed forces on Japan's southwestern islands, of which the nearest island is only 110 kilometers away. These arrangements are planned around the Taiwan Strait, with the sole purpose of containing China's military expansion and controlling peace and stability in the region.

He said signs of Taiwan being included in these security meetings or joint military exercises were becoming increasingly clear. Wang Dingyu told VOA:"In the end, there are two inevitable reasons for US-Japan security, US-Philippines cooperation, US-Japan-Philippines summit, and even the US-India, Australia, Vietnam, and South Korea (series):First, Japan has begun to play a more important role; second, there is a core interest in all this, which is Taiwan."

Taiwan's Han Kuang exercise this year will also be carried out by computer troops in April and a real military exercise will be held in July.