Things are heating up around Taiwan.

As we reported on Saturday, China has started three days of military “drills” around the island. This followed House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s meeting with the leader of Taiwan, President Tasi Ing-Wen. In response to that the Chinese sanctioned the Reagan Library and Library officials in a particularly lame response.

On Sunday, China simulated precision missile strikes against the island.

#Chinese media: A computer generated animation by the #PLA Eastern Theater Command shows its mock joint precision strikes on #Taiwan on Sunday.pic.twitter.com/013UK2s7SH

— Indo-Pacific News – Geo-Politics & Military News (@IndoPac_Info) April 9, 2023

Heads up. Being told that the Chinese have literally surrounded Taiwan while conducting “an exercise”. The U.S. must denounce these actions immediately. Taiwan deserves its freedom and sovereignty.

— Adam Housley (@adamhousley) April 9, 2023

China's military simulated precision strikes against Taiwan in a second day of drills around the island, with the defense ministry reporting multiple air force sorties and that it was monitoring China's missile forces https://t.co/eyCAq0clme pic.twitter.com/GewpbpJrvV

— Reuters (@Reuters) April 9, 2023

They are “practicing” encircling it.

The Taiwanese Defence Ministry said 71 Chinese military planes and nine ships crossed the Taiwan Strait median line.
The line is an unofficial dividing line between Chinese and Taiwanese territory.

One of the ships fired a round from its deck as it sailed near Pingtan island, China’s closest point to Taiwan, Reuters reported.

Chinese state media said the military drills would “simultaneously organise patrols and advances around Taiwan island, shaping an all-round encirclement and deterrence posture”.

It added that “long-range rocket artillery, naval destroyers, missile boats, air force fighters, bombers, jammers and refuellers” had all been deployed by China’s military.

Fox’s Lucas Tomlinson reported on the 71 planes being deployed earlier. He’s now saying that they’ve deployed 70 more planes this morning.

China launches another 70 aircraft to conduct a simulated attack on Taiwan on Easter Sunday. That’s 141 total over the past two days.

— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) April 9, 2023

There were also reports of a stand-off at the median line in the Taiwan Strait involving 20 ships, half from China and half from Taiwan.

In another concerning development, House Rep. Michael McCaul has said that he was open to sending troops if Taiwan was attacked.

The US is ready to send its troops to Taiwan if China invades there, -Chairman of the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs Michael McCaul I think if China invades Taiwan, and I think it will, the American people will support sending in troops and Congress will follow suit. pic.twitter.com/Amfw5e45cJ

— Feher_Junior (@Feher_Junior) April 8, 2023

“If communist China invaded Taiwan, it would certainly be on the table and something that would be discussed by Congress and with the American people,” the Texas Republican told Fox News. That’s in big contrast to the situation in Ukraine. If you’ll notice though, there’s a big caveat there — if the American people wanted it, which is likely not a popular idea. It’s still some big words to put out there. While he said it was a “last resort,” according to the reporter, he also said it was not out of the question. McCaul has been leading a three-day Congressional delegation in Taiwan, to signal U.S. support for the island to the Chinese. They were talking about arming Taiwan to deter any action by Beijing.

I think what he’s trying to do with these remarks is brush China back and keep the concept open so they don’t know whether or not we would. A lot of this is a back-and-forth game of cat and mouse, of showing strength, and suggesting we would respond in a way that will be very detrimental to them. If they don’t know exactly what our response might be, it’s one more thing that may hold them off. It’s about deterrence. In the face of the very weak Joe Biden, China has gotten a lot of ideas and that’s why they’re making moves around the world and posturing more against Taiwan. For years, they knew from our leaders it would be a very bad move to take, so they didn’t take it. But with Biden, they may think they have more of a chance and that’s concerning.