Wary of Beijing, Taiwan Doubles Down on South China Sea Island 

TAIPEI - Taiwan’s military has stepped up training of troops and added defensive weaponry on the contested South China Sea’s biggest natural island to prepare for any attack by Beijing, analysts believe.   

Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng told parliament March 17 China was “capable” of attacking and that he wanted Taiping Island “to be ready at all times,” local media reports said. He was referring to a sparsely populated feature in the Spratly archipelago that is located 1,500 kilometers southwest of Taiwan and disputed by five other governments, including China.  “That signals unequivocally that Taipei is concerned and takes China’s ambitions, statements and actions — reaffirming that Beijing intends to [capture] the island — very seriously,” said Fabrizio Bozzato, senior research fellow at the Tokyo-based Sasakawa Peace Foundation’s Ocean Policy Research Institute.    China has alarmed Taiwan since mid-2020 by sending military aircraft almost every day over a corner of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone. On Friday, the defense ministry spotted 20 planes, an unusually high count. China has added hangars and radar systems to its own seven holdings in the Spratly chain over the past decade.