BEIJING – China’s military has become alarmed by what it sees as U. S. President-elect Donald Trump’s support of Taiwan and is considering strong measures to prevent the island from moving toward independence, sources with ties to senior military officers said.
Three sources said one possibility being considered was conducting war games near the self-ruled island that China considers as a breakaway province. Another was a series of economic measures to cripple Taiwan.
It was not clear whether any decisions had been taken, but the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Taiwan issue had become a hot topic within the upper echelons of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in recent weeks.
Trump, due to take office on Jan. 20, angered Beijing this month by speaking to Taiwan’s president by telephone, breaking decades of precedent and casting doubt on his incoming administration’s commitment to Beijing’s “one China” policy. Beijing fears this could embolden supporters of independence in Taiwan.
“If Trump challenges ‘one China’ after becoming president, this would cross our red line,” said another source, who has ties to China’s leadership.
China’s Defense Ministry declined to comment. An official at the ministry’s news department said China’s position was clearly laid out in the 2005 Anti-Secession Law, which authorizes the use of force against Taiwan in the event China judges it to have seceded.
Asked about any possible aggressive moves from China, Taiwan Defense Ministry spokesman Chen Chung-shi said: “We are fully prepared, and plan for the worst while preparing for the best.”
China claims self-ruled Taiwan as its sacred and inviolable territory and is deeply suspicious of President Tsai Ing-wen, whose ruling Democratic Progressive Party espouses the island’s independence. Tsai, who took power this year, says she wants to maintain peace with China, but China is unconvinced.
Tsai said on Saturday that Taiwan will be “calm” when facing issues to do with China, but uncertainties next year will test the self-ruled island and its national security team.
Beijing has also been angered by a trip planned by Tsai in January to Latin America in which she will transit through Houston and San Francisco. China has urged the United States to block the stopovers.
Chinese officials have blamed Taiwan for creating trouble rather than Trump, and many of them believe he will be more accommodating to China once in office.
“We’re ready. If Taiwan wants to make trouble so can we. Let’s hit them hard,” said an official in Beijing who meets regularly with China’s most senior military officers, including those who work directly with President Xi Jinping.
“We can hold exercises close to Taiwan, and show them the damage we could cause. Taiwan will have to give in then,” the official added, citing a recent conversation with one of the military officers.
The United States is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, but it’s unclear if the United States would send troops in the event of war between China and Taiwan.
Washington also acknowledges Beijing’s position that there is only one China and Taiwan is its territory.
A retired senior officer who maintains contacts with the PLA said that China probably wouldn’t need to fire any missiles to bring Taiwan to its knees. China is Taiwan’s largest trading partner, and Taiwan runs a huge trade surplus with China, worth $27 billion in 2015.
“We can just cut them off economically. No more direct flights, no more trade. Nothing. Taiwan would not last long,” the officer said. “There would be no need for war.”
In addition, any Western economic blockade of China put in place in the event of war with Taiwan would also be damaging to China, already dealing with a slowing economy.
A U. S. defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Chinese actions had been more provocative in the past month, since Trump won the U. S. election and made comments about Taiwan.
This month, a Chinese naval flotilla headed by its sole aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, took part in drills that took it around Taiwan.
Chinese air force jets have performed similar drills in recent weeks, flying close to the island, though China has officially called the air force and naval exercises routine.
China also scored a diplomatic victory when tiny Sao Tome and Principe switched recognition to Beijing from Taiwan.

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Choking smog continued to blanket a vast area of the mainland, disrupting schools and traffic on the second day of the new year. Nine provinces and municipalities in the northern and central regions, including the area comprising Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei as well as Shan­dong, Shaanxi and Henan provinces, were engulfed by heavy air pollution. After pollution made Beijing’s air quality index (AQI) fly off the chart on the first day of the new year, residents got to breathe less toxic air for only a few hours before conditions got worse again on Monday night, according to the national meteorological agency. Beijing recorded an AQI close to or above 500, the top of the scale, on Sunday. Cold air helped disperse the smog on Monday morning, but the effect was short lived. The capital raised its orange alert for air pollution on December 30 and has extended it until tomorrow. An orange alert is the second-highest level on a four-tier warning system. Heavily polluting vehicles and trucks carrying construction waste are banned from roads and some manufacturing firms have cut production. The pollution disrupted traffic over the three-day New Year’s holiday. The toll station near the capital on the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau expressway reported numerous stationary vehicles, making the highway around the station look like a car park. Several highways in Henan were closed due to low visibility, which had dropped down to as ­little as 50 metres in some parts of the province. Kindergartens, middle and primary schools in Zhengzhou, the provincial capital, were to be closed today. Similar measures were taken in Xian, the capital of Shaanxi province. The Ministry of Environmental Protection revealed on Sunday that some businesses had broken rules about cutting production during smog alerts. People complained about the severe pollution on social media. “Taking a fresh breath of smog, it has a familiar smell,” one user said on China’s version of Twitter, Weibo. “This kind of environmental problem closely related to our daily life will not be solved by the inaction of the government and the Communist Party,” another Weibo user wrote.

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BEIJING: Heavy smog that blanketed parts of China at the weekend cleared somewhat on Monday, with flights in Beijing back to normal, but it was likely only to be a brief respite with more choking smog expected to return to the wintry north within 24 hours.
Weather forecasts on Monday showed the smog would return to Beijing and nearby Tianjin city from Tuesday. It was expected to persist until Thursday in Hebei, the heavily industrialised province that surrounds the capital, and Henan and Shandong provinces as the region battles freezing temperatures.
Authorities have been issuing smog alerts across the north since mid-December, prompting orders for hundreds of factories to scale back production or close outright and for restrictions on motorists to cut emissions.
Pollution alerts are common in northern China, especially during winter when energy demand, much of it met by coal, soars.
A pollution index that measures the average concentration of small breathable particles, known as PM2.5, dropped to just over 100 micrograms per cubic metre in Beijing early on Monday from more than 500 on Sunday night.
The safe recommended level of PM2.5 is 10 micrograms per cubic metre, according to the World Health Organization.
A customer service staff member at the Beijing Capital International Airport said flights were returning to normal. Smog on Sunday caused hundreds of flights to be cancelled and highways to shut, disrupting the first day of the New Year holiday.
On Monday, the Beijing government maintained its orange alert for heavy pollution and a ban on heavy-duty construction trucks from using the roads.
An orange alert is the second-highest level in a four-tier pollution warning system adopted by Beijing when China, worried that its heavy industrial past was tarnishing its global reputation and holding back development, declared a „war on pollution“ in 2014.
Despite that declaration, public anger is mounting about pollution and what many Chinese see as government talk, but little action, to end it. That anger has occasionally spilled over into protests.
Late on Sunday, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said 62 northern cities had issued yellow, orange or red alerts.
Some highways to Beijing and Tianjin were re-opened as motorists headed home at the end of the long weekend, state television reported later on Monday.
But 20 highways remained closed in Shandon province, as heavy smog persisted.
State television also reported that some factories in Hebei province’s heavy industry hub of Tangshan, including a coal-fired power plant of Datang Power International, and several steel mills, were found to be violating the curb on operations.
The latest bout of air pollution began on Friday. China has struggled to tackle the problem effectively after decades of breakneck economic growth, much of it based on heavy industry and the coal-fired power sector.

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People across northern China had to face immense inconvenience on Sunday as there was no respite from unrelenting smog even on New Year’s Eve. The unforgiving smog on the first day of the year forced authorities to cancel several flights and shut down many highways across the region.
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In the national capital Beijing, nearly 126 flights were reportedly cancelled at the city’s main airport, while buses from airport heading towards neighboring cities were suspended as well.
In Beijing’s neighboring metropolis Tianjin, the smog was not as severe but the visibility was much worse, with more than 300 flights called off at Tianjin airport. Local government authorities claimed that the situation across the city is not expected to improve anytime soon.
The People’s Daily reported on its official website that smog in Shijiazhuang city forced two dozen flights to be called off and nearly eight flights to divert to other airports.
At least 24 cities across northern China have issued red alert in the current round of on-going smog, which necessitates preventive measures like putting cap on car usage and closure of factories, while 21 cities including Beijing and Tianjin have been put on orange alert.
Smog alerts in China’s Northern provinces are pretty common during winter season, when energy demand across the country soars. The Asian country meets most of its energy demand by burning millions of tons of coals each year, which is widely blamed for emission of green house gases and other major pollution problems in the nation.   
The Chinese government has already vowed to cut down on coal consumption in a desperate bid to win the ongoing problem against pollution.

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