China said that Monday’s extensive military drills around Taiwan and its neighboring islands were a threat against Taiwan’s independence.
The drills, according to China’s Defense Ministry, were a reaction to President Lai Ching-te of Taiwan’s defiance of Beijing’s demands that Taiwan recognize itself as a component of the People’s Republic of China, a state ruled by the Communist Party.
Four days prior to the drills, Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te gave a speech in which he vowed to “resist annexation or encroachment” and stated that China had no right to represent Taiwan in the island nation’s celebration of the establishment of its government.
Taiwan’s Presidential Office stated that the exercises were provocative, and the country’s military was ready to counter China to “cease military provocations that undermine regional peace and stability and stop threatening Taiwan’s democracy and freedom.”
At a seminar in Taipei, Joseph Wu, the secretary-general of Taiwan’s security council, declared, “Our military will definitely deal with the threat from China appropriately.” “It is against the fundamental spirit of the United Nations Charter to resolve disputes through peaceful means to threaten other countries with force.”
The locations of the military exercises in Taiwan are shown by six sizable blocks on a map that was shown by China’s official broadcaster CCTV. The image also included circles around Taiwan’s outlying islands.
The army air force, missile corps, and navy were all mobilized for the maneuvers, according to Navy Senior Captain Li Xi, the PLA’s spokeswoman for the Eastern Theater Command. Li stated in a statement, “This is a serious warning to those who support Taiwan independence and a symbol of our determination to protect our national sovereignty.” Li said in a statement on the service’s public media channel.
The drills were previously conducted following Lai’s May inauguration. Lai carries on the Democratic Progressive Party’s eight-year administration, rejecting China’s insistence that Taiwan acknowledge its existence as a part of China.
Following Nancy Pelosi’s brief visit to Taiwan in 2022, China staged extensive military drills surrounding the island, emulating a blockade. China frequently claims that annexation by Beijing is historical inevitable and that Taiwan’s independence is a “dead end.”
Taipei people were unfazed on the streets. “It has no effect on me, so I don’t worry or panic either.” stated Chang Chia-rui.
Jeff Huang, a different resident of Taipei, stated: “I am accustomed to China’s military drills, and Taiwan is pretty stable right now. I’ve got threatened by this kind of threats since I was a child, and I am used to it.”
Taiwan was a Japanese colony before being unified with China at the end of World War II. It split away in 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists fled to the island as Mao Zedong’s Communists swept to power on the mainland.
(AP)
