Intensified military exercises. China is holding live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait on Monday (April 10), the third day of a “total encirclement” exercise to protest its president’s meeting with a senior US official.
During the weekend, fighter jets and warships had simulated targeted bombardments against the island, as part of this operation dubbed “Joint Sword” and denounced by Taiwan. The United States has called on Beijing to “restrain”. The objective of these exercises is to simulate a “total encirclement” of the territory of 23 million inhabitants claimed by Beijing. China has sent planes, ships and troops into “sea and airspace” all around the island, the military said.
“Several groups of H-6K fighters carrying live ammunition carried out several waves of simulated strikes on important targets on the island of Taiwan,” according to state broadcaster CCTV, the Eastern Theater Command army stating that Shandong also “participated in today’s exercise”. Beijing also explained that it was simulating a “lockdown” of Taiwan with its military tests, according to a statement from the Chinese military. Several dozen planes have been deployed to enforce an “air blockade” of territory claimed by Beijing, state broadcaster CCTV also said.
In response, the United States announced that its destroyer USS Milius conducted a “freedom of navigation operation” in an area of ??the South China Sea claimed by Beijing on Monday, as the Chinese military conducts exercises around Taiwan. . “This freedom of navigation operation respected the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea,” the US Navy said in a statement, adding that the vessel passed close to the Spratly Islands. The vessel passed within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of Mischief Reef, claimed by several countries in the region.
China was quick to react: “The guided-missile destroyer USS Milius conducted an illegal intrusion into the waters adjacent to the Meiji Reef in China’s Nansha Islands, without the approval of the Chinese government,” Tian Junli said. , a spokesperson for the Chinese military’s Southern Theater Command, in a statement, adding that the Beijing Air Force “has been tracking and conducting surveillance of the ship.”
This action does not fail to worry the people of Taiwan. “We ordinary people just want a simple and stable life,” Lin Ke-qiang, a 60-year-old resident of Beigan Island in the Matsu archipelago, which belongs to in Taiwan, but visible from the Chinese coast. “If a war comes, now that their missiles are so advanced, we have no chance of resisting, we will be crushed,” adds the man, who works as a cook.
On Sunday, the Chinese military simulated “precision strikes” against “key targets on the island of Taiwan and surrounding waters”, involving dozens of aircraft and ground troops, according to state television. , noting that this deployment will continue to maintain “close encirclement of the island”.
The air force also sent dozens of aircraft to “fly over the target airspace” and, on the ground, the army launched maneuvers for “precision fire at multiple targets”, according to the same source.
On Saturday, President Tsai Ing-wen denounced China’s “authoritarian expansionism” and assured that Taiwan would “continue to work with the United States and other countries […] to uphold the values ??of freedom and democracy.” . The Chinese maneuvers were launched after a meeting last Wednesday in California of the president with the speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy.
The US State Department reiterated its call on Saturday “not to change the status quo”, while the Pentagon said it was “monitoring events closely”. China views with displeasure the rapprochement in recent years between the Taiwanese authorities and the United States which, despite the absence of official relations, provides the island with substantial military support.
And it considers Taiwan as a province that it has not yet managed to reunify with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. It aims for this reunification, by force if necessary.
Monday’s live-fire exercises will be held in the Taiwan Strait near the coast of Fujian (east), the province facing the island, according to local Chinese maritime authorities. It is located 80 kilometers south of the Matsu Archipelago and 190 kilometers from Taipei. According to the same source, they will be conducted between 7 a.m. (1 a.m. Monday in Paris) and 8 p.m. (2 p.m. Monday in Paris), around Pingtan, an island which is the closest point between China and Taiwan.
The maneuvers “serve as serious warnings against collusion between separatist forces seeking ‘Taiwan independence’ and outside forces, as well as their provocative activities,” warned Chinese military spokesman Shi Yi.
Early Monday, an Agence France-Presse team on site in Pingtan saw no increased military activity. A small number of fishing boats and transport vessels were visible from the coast, but more distant vessels were not identifiable with the naked eye.
On Sunday, the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense said it had detected 11 Chinese warships and 70 Chinese planes around the island, an armada broadly similar to that recorded on Saturday. He said 45 aircraft crossed the median line between Taiwan and mainland China on Saturday, the highest number since the start of the year, according to data compiled by Agence France-Presse.
Over the weekend, the ministry detected about 150 Chinese boats and aircraft, including fighter jets, drones, bombers and transport vehicles.
The last major deployment around the island took place last August, when China engaged in unprecedented military maneuvers around Taiwan and fired missiles in response to a visit to the island by Democrat Nancy Pelosi, then president of bedroom.
