Dr Christina Lin
Abstract
In the face of a recent uptick in Chinese sabre rattling against Taiwan and India, the topic of the Three Gorges Dam as a military target has come to the fore. Taiwan defence planners have long discussed bombing the dam in the case of a Chinese invasion of the island, and with concurrent deterioration in Sino-Indian relations over border skirmishes, there is increased risk the dam could be in the crosshair that would devastate China’s population as well as its reserve military forces downstream.
Analysis
This past week there has been an uptick of Chinese fighter jets violating Taiwan airspace.1 Multiple Chinese Su-30 and J-10 fighters had entered Taiwan’s “response zone” to its southwest, prompting the island’s defence ministry to condemn this “destabilizing action which threatened regional peace.”2 Indeed, these provocative actions elevate the risks of miscalculation and escalation of military conflict. On September 4 when a Chinese Su-35 crashed in Guangxi in southern China, Indian press and social media began reporting that Taiwan’s patriot missile defence system had shot it down. 3
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