A Taiwan Air Force Mirage 2000 fighter takes off from Hsinchu Air Base / AFP
The Chinese military yesterday sent air, naval and missile troops to conduct joint military exercises around Taiwan, a move Beijing called a “strong warning” about separatist forces and “external interference.” In response, Taiwan put its armed forces on alert and called the Chinese government “the biggest destroyer of peace.”
Taiwan’s aviation authority said that more than 100,000 international travelers were affected by flight cancellations or diversions due to the maneuvers.
CHINESE ANGER AT WASHINGTON
The drills, which will span two days, were announced after Beijing expressed displeasure with Washington’s arms sales to the territory and after Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said its military could be involved if China moves against Taiwan, the self-governing island that the Chinese government believes should be under its rule. However, the Chinese military did not mention the United States or Japan in its statement Monday morning.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said in a post on social network X that rapid response exercises were underway and the armed forces were on high alert to defend the island. A separate statement said it had deployed appropriate forces and conducted combat readiness exercises in response.
Taiwan was on alert, saying the Chinese government was ‘the biggest destroyer of peace’
“The Chinese Communist Party’s selective military exercises once again confirm its character as an aggressor and the greatest destroyer of peace,” the ministry said.
Senior Col. Shi Yi, spokesman for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command, said the exercises would take place in the Taiwan Strait and in areas in the north, southwest, southeast and east of the island.
Shi said the activities would focus on air and naval combat readiness patrols, “comprehensive joint superiority gains” and blockades of key ports. It was also the first large-scale military exercise in which the command publicly mentioned that one of the goals was “deterrence in all dimensions outside the archipelago.”
“It is a strong warning against separatist forces and external interference forces of ‘Taiwan independence’, and is a legitimate and necessary measure to protect China’s sovereignty and national unity,” Shi said.
SEPARATED SINCE 1949
China and Taiwan have been governed separately since 1949, when a civil war brought the Communist Party to power in Beijing. The defeated Nationalist Party forces fled to Taiwan. The island has since been operated by its own government, although the Chinese government claims it as sovereign territory.
The command reported that on Monday it deployed destroyers, frigates, fighters, bombers and unmanned aerial vehicles in coordination with long-range missile launches to conduct maritime and airspace exercises in the core areas of the Taiwan Strait, with an emphasis on attacking moving targets on land. The aim is to test soldiers’ ability to carry out precision strikes on important targets, he added.
Taiwanese Defense Ministry sources said there were 89 aircraft and drones operating around the strait, 67 of which entered the “response zone,” an airspace monitored by the force.
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