Seizing the island group would be a viable option if Chinese officials wanted to impose punishing “half-measures,” as Stanford University’s Oriana Skylar Maestro put it in her testimony to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission earlier this year. However, because the island is so small and flat, it is almost impossible to defend.Ĭlearly, the Pratas would make for an enticing target if were Beijing to attempt an attack short of invasion to test the international response.
It is believed that around 500 soldiers of the ROC Marine Corps are also now stationed there.
Pratas Island (the other “islands” in the group are essentially rocks) has an airport, but no permanent inhabitants, only a number of civil officials of the Taiwanese Coast Guard and researchers. In addition to the distance from Taiwan, defending Pratas Island entails a number of other challenging factors, as Yoshiyuki Ogasawara, a professor at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, described at The Diplomat: 國防部 Ministry of National Defense, R.O.C. Please check our official website for more information: /DvaIvxXkrq On this Taiwanese defense-ministry map indicating the most recent incursion, the Pratas are marked by the purple dot, while the Chinese aircraft routes are shown by the red and green arrows:ģ PLA aircraft (J-11*2 and KJ-500 AEW&C) entered #Taiwan’s southwest ADIZ on November 8, 2021. In a report on the islands last summer, Bloomberg noted that they are “uninhabited except for a garrison of Taiwanese marines and coast guard officers” and that Beijing’s air-defense identification zone incursions regularly follow a path between Taiwan and these outlying islands, some 250 miles apart. The islands, which are in the South China Sea, are frequently cited as a potential target if Beijing decides to begin an incremental assault on Taiwan. Chen didn’t reveal the source of his intelligence. In recent days, two government officials - one Taiwanese, the other American - have made noteworthy predictions about just when the People’s Republic could attack Taiwan.Ĭhen Ming-tong, the director of Taiwan’s national-security bureau, last week told his country’s parliament that Chinese officials had debated attacking the Pratas Islands but decided against doing so before 2024, according to Reuters. An illustration of military aircraft behind the Chinese and Taiwanese national flags, Ap(Dado Ruvic / Reuters)
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