Chinese military exercises around Taiwan were to be completed after three days of maneuvers, but seem to have resumed on Tuesday, April 11: the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense said it detected, around 11 a.m. local time (5 a.m. in Paris), nine ships Chinese warplanes and twenty-six aircraft around the island. China “crossed the median line from the north, center and south,” the Defense Ministry reported, a day after Beijing announced the end of its major military maneuvers.
Beijing had launched military exercises, dubbed “Joint Sword”, around Taiwan on Saturday, during which simulated targeted strikes and an exercise to encircle the autonomous island took place.
China 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 wants this reunification, by force if necessary.
“Excuse to launch military exercises”
This show of force came after the meeting on Wednesday in California between Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and the Republican Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy, to which Beijing had promised to react.
China mobilized “military aircraft this morning and crossed the median line from the north, center and south,” Taiwan’s defense ministry reported, referring to the unofficial border separating mainland China from Taiwan.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said it detected nine Chinese warships and 26 aircraft around the island. The day before, there were twelve warships and ninety-one aircraft on the last day of the operation, Monday, and the crossing of the air defense identification zone (ADIZ) by fifty-four of these aircraft which had been detected.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Monday condemned the military exercises, hours after their official completion, saying China was using relations between Taipei and Washington as “an excuse to launch military exercises, creating instability in Taiwan and the region”.
“Defend the country”
“Although China’s military exercise has ended, our military and national security team will continue to stand by and defend the country,” Tsai said in a Facebook post.
At the end of “Joint Sword”, the Chinese military said it had “successfully completed” its military maneuvers.
A US destroyer meanwhile conducted a “freedom of navigation operation” in an area of ??the South China Sea claimed by Beijing on Monday. An “intrusion” immediately denounced by China.
The continued presence of Chinese ships and aircraft after the formal end of the maneuvers could be a sign of increased daily military activity, experts say. On Tuesday, the United States and the Philippines also conducted large-scale military exercises near Taiwan.
“I hope this will not become a normal situation,” responded Tzeng Yi-suo, a researcher at National Defense and Security Research in Taipei.