TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) – China conducted large-scale military exercises Monday around Taiwan and its remote islands, deploying an aircraft carrier along with fighter jets and underscoring the tense situation in the Taiwan Strait.
China’s Defense Ministry said the drills were in response to Taiwan’s president’s refusal to budge on Beijing’s demands to recognize autonomous Taiwan as part of the Communist Party-ruled People’s Republic of China. said.
The drill took place four days after Taiwan. celebrated the establishment of the government Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-de gave a speech on National Day, saying China has no right to represent Taiwan and vowing to “resist annexation and invasion.”
“Our military will definitely respond appropriately to the Chinese threat,” Taiwan Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu said at a forum in Taipei. “Threatening other countries with force violates the fundamental spirit of the United Nations Charter of resolving disputes by peaceful means.”
Taiwan’s Presidential Office called on China to “stop military provocations that undermine regional peace and stability, and stop threatening Taiwan’s democracy and freedom.”
A map broadcast on Chinese state broadcaster CCTV showed six large blocks surrounding Taiwan, marking locations where military exercises are being held, and circles drawn around Taiwan’s remote islands. China’s Ministry of Defense did not say how long the training would last.
China is deploying the aircraft carrier Liaoning for the exercise, and CCTV showed J-15 jets taking off from the carrier’s deck, although the carrier’s exact location is unclear.
Senior Navy Captain Li Xi, a spokesperson for the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command, said the exercise was a joint operation, so the navy, army air force, and missile forces were all mobilized. “This is a grave warning to those who support Taiwan independence and an expression of our determination to protect national sovereignty,” Li said in a statement on the station’s public media channels.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense said it had deployed warships to designated locations at sea and was monitoring and waiting. It also deployed mobile missiles and radar arrays on land to track ships at sea. As of Monday morning, it was tracking 25 Chinese fighter jets, seven warships and four Chinese government vessels, but it did not say what type of ships they were.
China subsequently conducted similar large-scale exercises. Mr. Yori took office in May.. Lai continues to rule for eight years with the Democratic Progressive Party, which rejects China’s demands to recognize Taiwan as part of China.
Also on Monday, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office announced sanctions against two Taiwanese nationals, Puma Shen and Robert Tsao, for their efforts to promote Taiwan’s independence. Shen is the co-founder of Bear Academy, a nonprofit organization that trains civilians for wartime preparedness. Mr. Tsao donated $32.8 million to fund the academy’s training courses. Shen and Cao are prohibited from traveling to China, including Hong Kong.
China also conducted large-scale military exercises around Taiwan, simulating a 2022 blockade following the island’s visit. nancy pelosithen the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. China has always maintained that Taiwan’s independence is a “dead end” and that its annexation is a historical necessity. The Chinese military has stepped up its air and maritime encirclement of Taiwan in recent years, conducting joint training with warships and fighter jets near the island on an almost daily basis.
Residents on the streets of the capital Taipei were undeterred. “I don’t worry, I don’t panic. It has no effect on me,” Zhang Chia Rui said.
Jeff Huang, who also lives in Taipei, said, “Taiwan is very stable now and I’m used to Chinese military exercises.I’ve been exposed to this kind of intimidation since I was a child, so I’m used to it. ”
Taiwan was a Japanese colony until it was unified by China at the end of World War II. It split in 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang fled to the island after Mao Zedong’s communists defeated the Kuomintang in a civil war and seized power.
___
Wu reported from Bangkok.
___
Follow AP’s Asia-Pacific coverage. https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific
