China says it is expanding threatening military exercises around Taiwan, which have disrupted sea and air traffic and raised substantial concerns about the potential for conflict in a region crucial to global trade. The announcement further adds to the uncertainty in the crisis that unfolded last week with the US House. Visit of Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan.
The drills will include anti-submarine exercises, apparently aimed at U.S. support for Taiwan in the event of a possible Chinese invasion, according to social media posts by the eastern leadership of the Chinese Communist Party’s military arm, the People’s Liberation Army .
An air force pilot from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command conducts joint combat training exercises over Taiwan on Sunday. (Wang Xinchao/Xi (AP)
China claims Taiwan as its own territory, and its leader, Xi Jinping, has focused on bringing the self-governing island democracy under mainland control, by force if necessary. The two sides split in 1949 after a civil war, but Beijing sees visits to Taiwan by foreign officials as recognition of its sovereignty.
Xi is seeking a third term as Communist Party leader later this year. His control over the armed forces and what he has defined as China’s “core interests” — including Taiwan, territorial claims in the South China Sea and historic adversary Japan — are key to maintaining his nationalist credentials.
The military has said the drills, which include missile strikes, warplanes and ship movements across the median line of the Taiwan Strait that divides the sides, are a response to Pelosi’s visit.
China has ignored calls to calm tensions and there was no immediate indication when the standoff would end.
Aircraft from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command conduct joint combat training exercises. (Li Bingyu/Xinhua via AP) (AP)
On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said China would “firmly safeguard China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, resolutely dissuade the United States from containing China on the Taiwan issue, and resolutely break the illusion of the Taiwanese authorities to “rely on the US for independence”.
Asked Monday in Dover, Delaware, about China’s response to Pelosi’s visit, US President Joe Biden said he was not “concerned”.
“But I worry about them moving around as much as they do. But I don’t think they’re doing anything more than they are,” he said.
China’s slowing economic growth, which has reduced options among migrant workers and university graduates, has raised the specter of social unrest.
The party has maintained its power through total control of the press and social media, along with the suppression of political opponents, independent lawyers and activists working on issues from online freedom of expression to LGBTQ rights.
China does not allow public opinion polls, and popular opinion is difficult to judge. However, it is generally skewed in favor of the government and its efforts to restore China’s former dominant role in the region that puts it at odds with the United States and its allies, including Japan and Australia.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong called for a cooling of tensions.
“Australia continues to call for restraint, Australia continues to call for de-escalation, and this is not something that only Australia is calling for,” he told reporters in Canberra.
“And the whole region is concerned about the current situation, the whole region is calling for stability to be restored.”
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong gestures during a press conference in Parliament on Monday. (Image by Mick Tsikas/AAP via AP) (AP)
Taiwan’s defense ministry said on Sunday it detected a total of 66 aircraft and 14 warships conducting the naval and air exercises. The island has responded by putting its military on alert and deploying ships, planes and other assets to monitor Chinese planes, ships and drones that are “simulating attacks on Taiwan Island and our ships at sea.”
Taiwan’s official Central News Agency reported that Taiwan’s military will hold live-fire artillery drills in southern Pingtung County on Tuesday and Thursday in response to Chinese drills.
The exercises will include snipers, combat vehicles, armored vehicles and attack helicopters, according to the report, which cites an unnamed source.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has called on the international community to “support democratic Taiwan” and “stop any escalation of the regional security situation.”
The Group of Seven industrialized nations has also criticized China’s actions, prompting Beijing to cancel a meeting between Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Japanese counterpart, Yoshimasa Hayashi.
China has cut off defense and climate talks with the US and imposed sanctions on Pelosi in retaliation for her visit.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Cambodia over the weekend that Pelosi’s visit was peaceful and not it represented a shift in American policy toward Taiwan. He accused China of using the trip as a “pretext to increase provocative military activity in and around the Taiwan Strait.”
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, left, speaks during a meeting with Yuan’s Legislative Vice President Tsai Chi-chang in Taipei, Taiwan. (Taiwan Presidential Office via AP) (AP)
The Biden and Pelosi administrations say the US remains committed to the “one China” policy that extends formal diplomatic recognition to Beijing while allowing informal relations and strong defense ties with Taipei.
The United States, however, criticized Beijing’s actions in the Taiwan Strait, with White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre calling them “fundamentally irresponsible.”
“There is no need or reason for this escalation,” Jean-Pierre said.
In Washington, Taiwan’s de facto ambassador Bi-khim Hsiao said China had no reason to “be so furious” over Pelosi’s visit, which follows a long tradition of US lawmakers visiting Taiwan .
“Well, you know, we’ve been living under the threat of China for decades,” Hsiao told CBS News on Sunday.
“If you have a kid who’s being bullied at school, you don’t say you don’t go to school. You try to find a way to deal with it.
“The risks are posed by Beijing,” Hsiao said.
China accuses US of ‘navigation harassment’
On a visit to Myanmar, whose Chinese-backed military government has been accused of murdering its opponents, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Washington was “seizing the opportunity to strengthen its military deployment in the region, which deserves close vigilance and a determined boycott by Myanmar.” all sides.”
“China’s firm stance” was aimed at “seriously safeguarding Taiwan Strait peace and regional stability,” Wang told the official Xinhua news agency.