File photo: China Military

The Taiwan question has been kept brewing. More than half of China's diplomatic troubles are related to it. In the long run, the cost of maintaining the current peace in the Taiwan Straits will only increase for the Chinese mainland. The US and Japan have countless levers to collude with the island of Taiwan, which will constantly consume the Chinese mainland's diplomatic resources and energy. 

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authority is determined to latch onto the US and Japan to gang up against the Chinese mainland, and has increasingly kidnapped public opinion on the island, while the US is making more and more frequently strategic manipulations over the Taiwan question. Given these facts the Chinese mainland has to take fundamental measures, engaging in a resolute struggle so that to stop the situation across the Taiwan Straits from deteriorating, deter the DPP authority and its supporters, and firmly seize the strategic initiative of the regional situation. 

Sending PLA fighter jets over the island of Taiwan is a step we must take. The move will pose a fundamental warning to the Taiwan authorities and bring about reconstruction of the situation across the Taiwan Straits. It will be a clear declaration of China's sovereignty over Taiwan island, and create unprecedented conditions for us to further implement this sovereignty.

The "airspace" over the Taiwan island belongs to the airspace of China. The so-called middle line of the Taiwan Straits has never been recognized by the Chinese mainland. Therefore, there is sufficient legal basis for the PLA fighter jets to fly over the island. Previously, PLA fighter jets did not fly over Taiwan. That was out of consideration for taking care of the emotions and feelings of Taiwan residents and out of the goodwill to maintain stability across the Straits. Now that the DPP authority has gone completely hostile toward the mainland and is willing to play a role as a pawn of the US in strategically containing the Chinese mainland, it is time for us to take back the favor we granted to the island in the past and prepare to exercise the sovereignty of sending fighter jets to patrol the Taiwan island.

Will the military on the Taiwan island dare to prevent PLA fighters from flying over the island and fire? Our answer is that: As long as the mainland's determination to conduct such a patrol is unwavering, if Taiwan fires, it would mean that the Chinese mainland will launch a destructive retaliation. Even a war to liberate the Taiwan island will start. In this context, the Taiwan military will never dare to fire at a PLA aircraft on such a mission.

The mainland fighter jets' flight over the Taiwan island must be backed by large-scale and overwhelming military preparedness. Fighters flying over the Taiwan Straits is only a part of the Chinese mainland's determination to reset the situation across the Straits. This will be a showdown that gives the DPP authority two choices: either accept the patrol and refrain from the extreme anti-mainland line of colluding with the US and Japan, or start a war by firing at military aircraft of the Chinese mainland and face the consequence of being destroyed and eliminated by the PLA.

It is a very important event for the fighter jets of the Chinese mainland to fly over the island. The US and its allies will make a fuss in the international community to further discredit the Chinese mainland and attack us for "unilaterally altering the status quo across the Taiwan Straits." We should show our contempt for such irresponsible claims. Tsai Ing-wen and the DPP authority have abandoned the 1992 Consensus and already changed the political status across the Taiwan Straits since they took office. The flyover of a mainland military plane is a reckoning of their salami-slicing tactics and a fundamental correction of their efforts to change the status quo across the Taiwan Straits.

There will be a long sequence of escalations in the cross-Straits game between the Chinese mainland and the US and the island of Taiwan, but the flyover of a mainland fighter jet will be the most critical step. The PLA has already been thoroughly preparing for the military struggle with the island of Taiwan. The mainland's fighter aircraft have frequently flown in the airspace near the island, crossing the so-called middle line of the Taiwan Straits many times. In fact, the Taiwan authorities have become more and more psychologically prepared for a flyover from the PLA.

Of course, that move will break the situation in the Straits, so it needs to be carried out at the most appropriate time. The mainland should make constant statements that its fighters are ready to fly over the island. This way, when Taiwan authorities seriously provoke the mainland, it will be in their expectation that fighter jets will definitely come from the other side of the Straits. It will be the safest when PLA fighter jets fly over Taiwan amid media reports about the mainland's wrath.

Let us be fully prepared that there will be a showdown in the Taiwan Straits. Let us crush the will of the DPP authority with our strong will to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as our real ability. Let us send our first PLA fighter jet over the island of Taiwan at the most accurate time. That will be a milestone on China's path to reunification.