Plane spotting shows PLA is ready and able

The US side got the response it deserved on Tuesday when it sent a P-8A anti-submarine patrol aircraft to transit through the Taiwan Strait and publicly hyped it up. It ended up mobilizing the naval and air forces of the People's Liberation Army Eastern Theater Command to monitor the plane's passage.

The move by the United States is rather absurd and a betrayal of its commitment to the one-China principle. A US military patrol transiting the Taiwan Strait, when Washington officially recognizes that there is only one China, is as ridiculous as some country's military sending a warplane to make trouble at the US' doorstep while claiming it respects the US' sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The US' move seemed in tune with what Kyodo news agency reported on Sunday, that it was aimed at compiling a joint military plan with Japan "for a possible Taiwan emergency". If the plan is to be carried out in December as reported, the US will deploy missile units at the Ryukyu Islands to the southwest of Japan, as well as in the Philippines. With their guns and missiles pointing at Taiwan, the plot is apparently aimed at "containing" China and intervening in its domestic affairs, especially in the Taiwan Strait.

But the plot will be in vain. It's time they heeded what Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said at the news conference on Monday, that Taiwan is an inseparable part of China, the Taiwan question is an internal matter of China, and the key to maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait lies in adhering to the one-China principle.

China firmly opposes any country using Taiwan as a pretext to strengthen regional military deployments, incite tensions and confrontations, and undermine regional peace and stability. By intending to launch a joint plan with Japan aimed at interfering in China's domestic affairs, the US has underestimated the Chinese people's determination to defend its sovereignty and will only get itself into trouble.