China on Monday (October 14, 2024) employed a record 125 aircraft, as well as its Liaoning aircraft carrier and ships, in large-scale military exercises around Taiwan and its outlying islands, underscoring that key ports Has been sealed. The situation in the Taiwan Strait is tense, officials said.
China has made it clear that it wants to punish Taiwan’s president for rejecting Beijing’s sovereignty claim over the self-ruled island.
The exercise came four days after Taiwan celebrated the establishment of its government on its National Day, when Taiwanese President Lai Ching-tey said in a speech that China had no right to represent Taiwan and called for “interference.” Or declared its commitment to “resist encroachment”.
“This is a firm punishment for Lai Ching-te’s persistent nonsense of ‘Taiwan independence’,” China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said in a statement.
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said 90 aircraft, including warplanes, helicopters and drones, were spotted in Taiwan’s air defense identification zone. The ministry said that from 5.02 am to 4.30 pm, a record number of aircraft were flown in a day, with shipping traffic operating normally.
Taiwan remained defiant. “Our military will definitely deal appropriately with the threat from China,” Joseph Wu, secretary-general of Taiwan’s Security Council, said at a forum in Taiwan’s capital, Taipei. “Threatening other countries with force violates the basic spirit of the UN Charter to resolve disputes by peaceful means.”
Taiwan’s presidential office also called on China to “stop military provocations that undermine regional peace and stability and stop endangering Taiwan’s democracy and independence.”
A map broadcast on China’s state broadcaster CCTV showed six large blocks encircling Taiwan indicating where military exercises were being held, with circles drawn around Taiwan’s outlying islands.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said the six areas are concentrated around the island and at key strategic locations on the island.
China deployed its Liaoning aircraft carrier for the exercises, and CCTV showed a J-15 fighter jet taking off from the carrier’s deck.
Senior Captain Li Xi, spokesman for the Eastern Theater Command of the People’s Liberation Army of China, said on Monday (October 14, 2024) evening that the drill was completed successfully.
Mr Lee said the Navy, Army Air Force and missile corps were all deployed for the exercise, which was an integrated operation. “This is a stark warning to those who support Taiwan independence and a symbol of our determination to defend our national sovereignty,” Mr. Lee said in a statement on the service’s public media channel.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning told the daily briefing that China does not consider relations with Taiwan a diplomatic issue, while refusing to recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state.
“I can tell you that Taiwan independence is as incompatible with peace in the Taiwan Strait as fire is with water. Provocations by Taiwan independence forces will be resolutely retaliated against,” Mr. Mao said.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it had deployed warships to designated locations in the sea to monitor and remain prepared. It also deployed mobile missile and radar groups on land to track ships at sea. It said that as of Monday (October 14, 2024) morning, they had tracked 25 Chinese warplanes and seven warships and four Chinese government ships, although it did not specify what types of ships they were.
On the streets of Taipei, residents were fearless. Chang Chia-rui said, “I don’t worry, I don’t panic, it doesn’t affect me.”
Another Taipei resident, Jeff Huang, said: “Taiwan is very stable now, and I have become accustomed to China’s military exercises. I have been receiving such threats since I was a child and I have become accustomed to it.”
The US, Taiwan’s biggest unofficial ally, described China’s reaction to Lai’s speech as inappropriate. “We call on the (Beijing government) to act with restraint and refrain from any further actions that undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and the broader region,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
China held similar large-scale exercises after Lai’s inauguration in May. Lai continues the eight-year rule of the Democratic Progressive Party, which rejects China’s demands that it recognize Taiwan as part of China.
China also conducted large-scale military exercises around Taiwan and simulated a blockade in 2022 following a visit to the island by Nancy Pelosi, who was speaker of the US House of Representatives at the time. China regularly says Taiwan independence is a “dead end” and its annexation by Beijing is a historical inevitability. China’s military has stepped up its siege of Taiwan’s skies and waters over the past few years, conducting joint exercises with its warships and fighter planes near the island on an almost daily basis.
Additionally, on Monday (October 14, 2024), China’s Taiwan Affairs Office announced that it is sanctioning two Taiwanese individuals, Puma Shen and Robert Tsao, for promoting Taiwan independence. Mr. Shen is the co-founder of Kuma Academy, a non-profit group that trains civilians for wartime preparedness. Mr. Tsao donated $32.8 million to finance the academy’s training courses. Mr Shen and Mr Tsao have been barred from traveling to China, including Hong Kong.
Taiwan was a Japanese colony before being unified with China at the end of World War II. It fell apart in 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists fled to the island as Mao Zedong’s Communists defeated them in a civil war and seized power.
published – October 14, 2024 11:02 PM IST