China's navy seen to be erasing imagined Taiwan Strait median line

TAIPEI • For nearly 70 years an imagined line running down the Taiwan Strait between Taiwan and China has helped keep the peace but the so-called median line is looking increasingly meaningless as China's modernised navy asserts its strength.

Beijing has never officially recognised the line that an American general devised in 1954 at the height of Cold War hostility between Communist China and US-backed Taiwan although the People's Liberation Army largely respected it.

Now Taiwan is bracing itself for warships from China's much larger navy routinely pushing over the line as part of the steps an angry Beijing has taken to protest against a visit to Taipei earlier this month by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

"They want to increase pressure on us with the end goal of us giving up the median line," said one Taiwanese official familiar with security planning in the region. "They want to make that a fact," said the official.

Some Taiwanese officials say it would be "impossible" for the island to abandon the concept of a buffer that the line represents.

Foreign Minister Joseph Wu told a news conference this month that a change in the status quo could not be tolerated. "We need to join our hands with like-minded partners to make sure that the median line is still there, to safeguard peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait," Mr Wu said.

Other officials and security analysts warn that it would be difficult for the island to defend the line without raising the risk of dangerous escalation. Taiwan would have to react militarily if Chinese forces entered its 12 nautical miles of territorial waters, the Taiwan official said, but apart from that, there was no immediate plan to give the military or coastguard more authority to respond.

Ships of the US and other Western navies sail through the strait to highlight what they maintain is its international status, not to strictly enforce the imaginary line that has no legal standing.

The Taiwan Strait is some 180km wide and at its narrowest, the median line is about 40km from Taiwan's waters.

An established Chinese naval presence close to Taiwan's territorial waters would stretch the island's military and make any Chinese blockade or invasion much easier, Taiwanese officials warn.

In recent days, frigates and destroyers from both sides have played cat-and-mouse, with Chinese ships trying to manoeuvre around Taiwanese patrols to cross the line. Chinese fighter jets have also crossed the line this month, albeit only going a short way over, something China's air force has only done rarely in the past.

Mr Chieh Chung, a security analyst from the National Policy Foundation think-tank in Taipei, said the "overthrowing" of the median line consensus had increased the risk of accidental conflict.

Mr Chieh said the codes of engagement for Taiwan's coastguard and military should be reviewed to give them more authority and legal protection in reacting to increasingly complex challenges from Chinese forces.

Three US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Chinese crossings of the median line had little tactical importance. "It's an imaginary line that's symbolic and it's about poking Taiwan in the eye a bit," said one of the officials.

REUTERS