China on Friday sent new warships and warplanes near Taiwan, which it says is an “inseparable part of the rest of the Chinese state, after a meeting – which Beijing refused – between the Taiwanese president and the speaker of the House. American representatives.
For the second day in a row, three Chinese warships sailed through the waters surrounding the self-governing island, the Taiwanese Defense Ministry said, adding that a fighter jet and an anti-submarine helicopter also crossed the sea. Air Defense Identification Zone (Adiz) of Taiwan.
Taiwan had already detected three warships and a Chinese anti-submarine helicopter on Thursday.
And on Wednesday, a few hours before the meeting in California (United States) between Tsai Ing-wen, the president of Taiwan, and Kevin McCarthy, third figure of the American authorities, the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong had crossed the waters to the southeast from Taiwan en route to the Western Pacific.
Tsai returned to Taiwan on Friday after visiting her dwindling Latin American allies. “We are showing the international community that Taiwan is more united than ever in the face of pressure and threats,” she told reporters. “We will never give in to repression and we will not stop interacting with the world regardless of the obstacles.”
Beijing has always threatened a response if the Tsai-McCarty meeting takes place, in the name of its principle of “one China” which prohibits, according to him, to maintain official ties with Beijing and Taipei at the same time.
“Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” the communist government repeated on Friday.
“China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity will never be divided,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a regular press briefing. “Taiwan’s future lies in reunification with the motherland.”
With the incursions of the past two days around Taiwan, Beijing’s response to the Tsai-McCarty meeting is at this stage not comparable with the unprecedented Chinese military maneuvers of August 2022, in reaction to the visit to the Nancy Pelosi Island, who preceded Mr. McCarthy to American roost.
AFP journalists on Pingtan Island, the closest Chinese outpost to Taiwan, saw a military ship and at least two military helicopters transiting the Taiwan Strait on Friday afternoon. It was not immediately clear whether the moves represented an increase in the usual number of Chinese patrols in the area.
After considering also going to Taiwan, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives had decided to meet Ms. Tsai in California, on a stopover on her return from Latin America. This compromise was intended to avoid inflaming tensions with Beijing.
Before leaving Los Angeles (United States) on Thursday, Ms. Tsai said she “hoped” that China would “show restraint and not overreact”.
During their meeting, Mr. McCarthy called for “continuing arms sales to Taiwan”, “the best way” to prevent a Chinese invasion. “It’s an essential lesson that we learned from Ukraine, that the idea of ??simple sanctions in the future will not stop anyone,” he insisted to the press.
Ms. Tsai was content to acknowledge having “bought weapons in the United States”, hoping that they would be “delivered on time”.
Taiwan wants to “prevent Chinese interference” in its territorial waters, she added at a press conference.
Its Prime Minister Chen Chien-jen said on Friday that Taiwan’s Defense and National Security Department was closely monitoring developments and asked “the public for reassurance.”
Beijing must choose the path of “diplomacy” and not that of “pressure” on Taiwan, urged Vedant Patel, spokesman for the US State Department, on Thursday.
On Friday, China imposed sanctions on Taipei’s envoy to the United States, Hsiao Bi-khim, banning him from entering China and accusing him of “deliberately inciting confrontation between the two sides of the Strait “.
Taiwan condemned these sanctions, saying that Beijing was trying to “further restrict the international position of our country”. “Coercion and repression…will only strengthen our government’s belief in defending freedom and democracy,” Taiwan’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
China’s Foreign Ministry also announced sanctions against the Hudson Institute, a Washington-based conservative think tank, as well as the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, where the Tsai-McCarthy interview was held. , for “providing a platform and facilitating Tsai Ing-wen’s engagement in Taiwanese separatist activities in the United States”.
The two organizations are now prohibited from conducting transactions and cooperating with Chinese entities, while four people linked to these organizations are prohibited from entering or doing business in China.
04/07/2023 15:18:19 – Taipei (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
