A woman uses her mobile phone as she walks in front of a large screen showing news about China’s military exercises encircling Taiwan, in Beijing on August 4. NOEL CELIS/AFP/Getty Images
China deployed dozens of aircraft and fired live missiles near Taiwan on Thursday in its biggest-ever drills across the Taiwan Strait, a day after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a solidarity trip to the self-governing island.
China’s military confirmed several conventional missile launches into Taiwanese waters as part of planned exercises in six areas that will run until midday Sunday. It activated more than 100 aircraft, including fighter jets and bombers, and more than 10 warships, state broadcaster CCTV said.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said it scrambled planes to warn 22 Chinese fighter jets that crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait into its air defense zone, and said troops fired flares on Thursday in the afternoon to clear away four drones that were flying over the area of their Kinmen Islands. off the southeast coast of China.
He said the missiles fired by China flew high in the atmosphere and posed no threat to it, responding to public concerns about whether they passed over the main island of Taiwan.
Japan protested that five missiles appeared to land in its economic zone.
“The collusion and provocation between the US and Taiwan will only push Taiwan into the abyss of disaster, bringing catastrophe to Taiwan’s compatriots,” a Chinese defense ministry spokesman said.
In response to the Chinese drills, President Tsai Ing-wen said Taiwan would not provoke conflict, but would firmly defend its sovereignty and national security.
“Taiwan will never be overcome by challenges,” Tsai said in a recorded video message to the people of Taiwan.
“We are calm and not impetuous, we are rational and not provocative, but we will also be firm and not shirk.”
Taiwan said 11 Chinese Dongfeng ballistic missiles had been fired into nearby waters, the first time since 1996.
Taiwanese officials said the drills violated United Nations rules, invaded its space and threatened free air and maritime navigation. It has been self-governing since 1949, when Mao Zedong’s Communists seized power in Beijing after defeating Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) in a civil war, leading to the KMT-led government he retired to the island.
The military activity followed Pelosi’s unannounced support visit to Taiwan in defiance of China’s warnings.
What is happening in the Taiwan Strait? China’s military exercises and Nancy Pelosi’s visit explained
In South Korea, Pelosi avoids public comment on Taiwan, China
To avoid escalating tensions with Beijing, the United States postponed a routine test launch of an Air Force Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing U.S. officials. An official said the delay could last 10 days, according to the report.
Before the drills officially began, Chinese navy ships and military aircraft briefly crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait several times on Thursday, a Taiwanese source briefed on the matter told Reuters.
By midday, warships from both sides remained very close as Taiwan also scrambled aircraft and deployed missile systems to track Chinese aircraft crossing the line.
“They came in and then came out, again and again. They keep harassing us,” the Taiwanese source said.
China, which has long said it reserves the right to take Taiwan by force, says its differences with the island are an internal matter.
In Taiwan, life was largely normal despite concerns that Beijing might fire a missile over the main island as North Korea did over Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido in 2017.
“When China says they want to annex Taiwan by force, they have actually been saying that for quite some time,” said Chen Ming-cheng, a 38-year-old real estate agent. “From my personal understanding, they are trying to divert public anger, the anger of their own people, and turn it to Taiwan.”
Taiwan said the websites of its defense ministry, foreign ministry and presidential office were attacked by hackers and warned of “psychological warfare”.
China launched multiple missiles around Taiwan on August 4 as it launched its largest-ever military exercises in the island’s waters. Beijing is outraged by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, which it considers its sovereign territory.
Reuters
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan a “maniac, irresponsible and highly irrational” act, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Wang, speaking at a meeting of Southeast Asian foreign ministers in Cambodia, said China had tried to avert the crisis through diplomatic means but would never let its core interests be harmed.
Unusually, the drills in six areas around Taiwan were announced with a location map distributed by China’s official Xinhua news agency, a factor that, for some analysts, illustrated the game both to the national public as well as abroad.
In Beijing, security near the US embassy was unusually tight, although there were no signs of significant protests.
“I think this (Pelosi’s visit) is a good thing,” said a man surnamed Zhao in Beijing. “It gives us an opportunity to surround Taiwan and then use that opportunity to take Taiwan by force. I think we should thank Comrade Pelosi.”
Pelosi, the highest-level American visitor to Taiwan in 25 years, praised its democracy and pledged American solidarity during her brief stopover. Chinese anger could not stop world leaders from traveling there, he said.
“Our delegation came to Taiwan to make it unequivocally clear that we will not abandon Taiwan,” Pelosi told Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen, whom Beijing suspects of pushing for formal independence — a red line for China.
China summoned the US ambassador to Beijing in protest and halted several agricultural imports from Taiwan.
The United States and Group of Seven foreign ministers warned China not to use Pelosi’s visit as a pretext for military action against Taiwan.
“We are watching this closely. We continue to urge the Chinese not to overreact here. There is no reason to react the way they have or to escalate tensions,” the national security spokesman for the White House, John Kirby.
The United States does not have official diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but is required by US law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. Taiwan rejects China’s sovereignty claims, saying only the islanders themselves can decide their future.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is following developments closely and with concern, a UN spokesman said.