Chinese H-6K bomber and J-11 fighters

WASHINGTON: The strategic messaging between the US, its allies and China has grown hotter and heavier since China upped the ante by launching more than 150 aircraft into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone in early October.

The latest signal was sent by Australia Defence Minister Peter Dutton in a Nov. 13 interview with The Australian newspaper. Dutton averred it would be “inconceivable that we wouldn’t support the US in an action if the US chose to take that action” with regard to Taiwan.

The reliably bellicose Hu Xijin, editor in chief of the official Global Times’ newspaper, slammed Dutton’s remarks in a Tweet, promising a “heavy attack” on Australia if it should get involved in any Taiwan conflict.

Dutton’s remarks, coming just days before President Joe Biden is to hold a virtual summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, did not come from nowhere.

Last Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US and its allies would take “action” if China used force to change against Taiwan. Blinken’s comments followed President Joe Biden’s claim on Oct. 21 — formulaically disavowed by his staff — that the US would defend Taiwan should China attack.

The Taiwan Relations Act, signed by President Jimmy Carter, made a purposefully ambiguous commitment to the island state: “The United States will make available to Taiwan such defense articles and defense services in such quantity as may be necessary to enable Taiwan to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability.”

Peter Dutton, Australian Defence Minister (Australian MOD)

The same day Dutton spoke, the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command, which would lead the way in any invasion of Taiwan, “declared a joint combat-readiness patrol aimed at Taiwan for the first time, a few hours after several United States lawmakers made an unannounced visit to Taipei,” the South China Morning Post reported from Hong Kong.

After all this, top Republican defense lawmaker Mike Rogers accused the Biden Administration of being “asleep at the wheel” regarding the threat from China.

“(Chinese President) Xi saw how Biden abandoned our allies in Afghanistan and he’s now betting that Biden won’t step up to defend Taiwan. Biden must not allow fake promises on climate change to distract from the real threat that China poses to the United States and the American people,” the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee said today, hours before the virtual summit.