Shake-ups in the Taiwan Strait

Here’s what else you need to know about China today:

China sent another round of military patrols in the waters and airspace around Taiwan starting Sunday, per the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), amid rising tensions in the Taiwan Strait.

• Fifty-seven PLA aircraft and four PLA Navy (PLAN) warships were detected close to Taiwan in the 24 hours before 6 a.m. today, the island’s defense ministry announced, with 28 of the detected aircraft crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait and entering Taiwan’s southwest ADIZ.
• The incursion coincides with high-level EU delegations, led by German and Lithuanian lawmakers, that arrived in Taipei today in a “sign of solidarity” with the self-ruled democracy.
• “We need to point out that the root cause of the Taiwan question is that the law of the jungle, hegemonism, colonialism and militarism were wreaking havoc across the world back then, which inflicted deep suffering on China. Germany has learned a hard and poignant lesson in this regard,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wāng Wénbīn 汪文斌 said today when asked at a press conference.
• Taiwan’s defense ministry responded: “PLA’s false accusation and irrational provocation have severely destabilized the security of Taiwan Strait and neighboring regions.”
• Last Thursday, the U.S. Navy sailed a warship through the Taiwan Strait for “routine transit,” following a recent close call between U.S. and Chinese military planes in the region.

Meanwhile, a cross-party delegation from Paraguay is also paying a visit to Taiwan amid shaky bilateral relations. “Paraguay would cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan and open relations with China if the opposition wins an election in April” in a bid to boost crucial soy and beef exports, opposition presidential candidate Efrain Alegre told Reuters last week.

• Soy and beef exports are vital to the Paraguayan economy, and calls to sever diplomatic ties are growing among many of its producers and farmers, who see their country’s relationship with Taiwan as an obstacle to the vast Chinese market.
• Paraguay, one of Taiwan’s 14 remaining formal allies, asked Taipei last September for $1 billion worth of investments in order to resist pressure to switch its diplomatic ties to China.

China’s new foreign minister, Qín Gāng 秦刚, is heading to Africa for a five-nation, weeklong trip to kick off his new term, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced today, marking the 33rd consecutive year that Africa has been the destination of Chinese foreign ministers’ annual first overseas visit.

• Qin Gang will be visiting Ethiopia, Gabon, Angola, Benin, and Egypt in a bid to “deepen” ties and “boost friendly cooperation.”
• “This shows how much China values its traditional friendship with Africa and the growth of China-Africa relations,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wāng Wénbīn 汪文斌 said today.
• Meanwhile, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhào Lìjiān 赵立坚, who gained prominence as one of China’s most outspoken “wolf warrior” diplomats, has been transferred from his high-profile role to a different department that manages land and sea borders. It’s not clear if this is a demotion.

Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 held talks with Turkmenistan President Serdar Berdimuhamedov in Beijing on Friday (full joint statement in Chinese), where he called for the “need to expand energy cooperation on a priority basis.”

• Last week, Afghanistan’s Taliban-led administration signed a contract with a Chinese company to extract oil from the Amu Darya basin in the northern part of the country.

2.6 million people applied for the national civil service examination that kicked off yesterday in 66,863 locations across the country, with only 37,100 positions available (1:70). The number of positions available this year is 18.7% more than last year. See today’s Business briefs from the Chinese media, with more links and info on:

• China’s banks handled 127.63 billion non-cash payment transactions worth 1.27 quadrillion yuan ($186.57 trillion) in the third quarter of 2022.
• Sales of inbound and outbound air tickets increased by 628% year-on-year on January 8.