China simulated attacks on “key targets” in Taiwan on Sunday, in the second day of “total siege” military exercises scheduled to run through Monday, a “serious warning” according to Beijing following the Taiwanese president’s meeting with a senior US official.
Taiwan and the United States denounced the operation, called “Joint Sword”, and asked Beijing for “restraint” while ensuring that they keep their communication channels with China open.
The moves began after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen met with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California on Wednesday.
Beijing vowed to respond to the meeting with “firm and forceful” measures.
The exercises are aimed at establishing China’s ability to “seize control of the sea, airspace and information… to create a deterrence and total encirclement” of Taiwan, Chinese state television said on Saturday.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry spotted nine Chinese warships and 58 aircraft around the island on Sunday, after sighting as many ships and 71 aircraft the previous day.
The ministry said it was monitoring the movements of the Chinese military through a “joint intelligence and reconnaissance system”, saying that planes detected as of midday Sunday local time (0400 GMT) included fighters and bombers.
Also on Sunday, the Chinese military staged “precision strikes” against “key targets on the island of Taiwan and the surrounding waters,” involving dozens of aircraft and ground troops, according to state television.
Beijing said that destroyers, speedboats and fighter planes, among others, are being mobilized in the maneuvers, which will last until Monday.
“I’m a bit worried, I’d be lying if I said otherwise,” Donald Ho, 73, told AFP on Sunday. “If there is war, both sides will suffer a lot,” he added.
China considers the island of Taiwan, with a population of 23 million, as one of its provinces that it has not yet managed to reunify with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.
The moves “serve as a serious warning against collusion between separatist forces seeking ‘Taiwan independence’ and outside forces, as well as their provocative activities,” said a Chinese military spokesman, Shi Yi.
Washington on Saturday reiterated its call “not to change the status quo.”
“We are confident that we have sufficient resources and capabilities in the region to ensure peace and stability,” the State Department said.
The Chinese government announced it will hold live-fire exercises in the Taiwan Strait near the coast of Fujian, a province off the island, on Monday, according to local maritime authorities.
The exercises, which have an “operational” dimension, are intended to demonstrate that the Chinese military will be ready “if provocations intensify” to “resolve the Taiwan issue once and for all,” military expert Song told AFP. Zhongping.
President Tsai on Saturday denounced China’s “authoritarian expansionism” and assured that Taiwan “will continue to work with the United States and other countries (…) to uphold the values ??of freedom and democracy.”
China is unhappy with the rapprochement in recent years between the Taiwanese authorities and the United States, which, despite the absence of official relations, provides the island with significant military support.
Last summer, China conducted unprecedented military exercises around Taiwan and fired missiles in response to a visit to the island by Democrat Nancy Pelosi, McCarthy’s predecessor in the House of Representatives.
The United States recognized the People’s Republic of China in 1979 and, in theory, should not have any official contact with the ROC (Taiwan) under the “one China principle” advocated by Beijing.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
