China’s military said it carried out more drills near Taiwan as a delegation of US politicians visited the Chinese-claimed island and met with President Tsai Ing-wen, who said his government was committed to maintaining stability.
Key Points:
China accuses the US of encouraging independence for the islandWashington says it does not support independence, but is legally bound to ensure the island can defend itselfThe Chinese military said it had organized joint combat readiness patrols and combat exercises across Taiwan
The five US diplomats, led by Democratic Senator Ed Markey, arrived in Taipei on an unannounced visit on Sunday, the second high-level group to visit after that of the speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, in early August, which began several days. of Chinese war games.
Pelosi was the highest-ranking member of the US government to visit Taiwan in 25 years, and her trip sparked nearly two weeks of threatening military exercises by China.
In those exercises, Beijing fired missiles over the island and into the Taiwan Strait and sent warplanes and navy ships across the waterway’s median line, which has long been a buffer between the sides that split in the middle of the civil war in 1949.
China accuses the US of encouraging the island’s independence through arms sales and compromise between US politicians and the island’s government.
Washington says it does not support independence, has no formal diplomatic relations with the island and maintains the two sides should resolve their dispute peacefully, but is legally bound to ensure the island can defend itself against any attack.
US and Taiwanese officials have accused China of using Pelosi’s visit as a pretext for bullying, and a senior US official recently said Washington would continue to deepen ties with Taiwan in the coming days and weeks. .
“China will take decisive and forceful measures to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a daily briefing on Monday.
“A handful of US politicians, in collusion with Taiwan’s independence separatist forces, are trying to challenge the ‘One China’ principle, which is out of its depth and doomed to failure.”
On Monday, the Chinese military unit in charge of the area adjacent to Taiwan, the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command, said it had organized joint combat readiness patrols and combat exercises at sea and the airspace around Taiwan.
He added that the exercises were “a severe deterrent for the United States and Taiwan to continue to play political tricks and undermine peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”
The theater command said the drills took place near Taiwan’s Penghu Islands, which lie in the Taiwan Strait and are home to a major air base, and showed a video of close-up of the islands captured by a aircraft of the Chinese Air Force.
In a harsh statement, China’s Defense Ministry said its armed forces were training for war and would crush any attempt at Taiwanese independence.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said on Monday that 15 Chinese planes had once again crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, adding that it condemned China’s new drills and would deal with them “calmly”.
ABC/children
