HUALIEN, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan is holding military exercises to demonstrate its ability to resist Chinese pressure to accept Beijing’s political control over the autonomous island, following new rounds of threatening exercises from China.
Wednesday’s drills in southeastern Hualien County follow days of Chinese missile launches and incursions into Taiwan’s sea and airspace by ships and planes of the People’s Liberation Army, the military wing of the Communist Party of China.
“We strongly condemn Communist China’s continued military provocations around Taiwan’s sea and air that undermine regional peace,” Taiwan’s Defense Ministry spokesman Sun Li-fang told reporters at the force base Hualien Airline.
“Communist China’s military operations only provide us with the opportunity to train for combat,” Sun said.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou said China was using recent visits by members of the US Congress, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as a pretext to step up its attempts to ‘intimidating Taiwan into accepting what it calls its terms for “peaceful reunification”.
“China launched military provocations for these reasons. This is absurd and a barbaric act, which also undermines regional stability and interferes with maritime and commercial activities in the Indo-Pacific region,” Ou said.
China sees the island as a breakaway province that will be annexed by force if necessary, and sees visits to Taiwan by foreign officials as recognition of its sovereignty.
Along with its military threats, China on Tuesday imposed visa bans and other sanctions on Taiwanese political figures. China exercises no effective legal authority over Taiwan, and it is unclear what effect the sanctions would have.
China has rejected any contact with Taiwan’s government since shortly after the 2016 election of President Tsai Ing-wen of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party. Tsai was overwhelmingly re-elected in 2020.
The DPP also controls the legislature, while the vast majority of Taiwanese favor maintaining the status quo of de facto independence along with strong economic and social connections between the sides.
China accuses Washington of encouraging the island’s independence through arms sales and compromise between US politicians and the island’s government. The United States says it does not support independence and has no formal diplomatic relations with the island, but is legally bound to ensure Taiwan can defend itself against threats from China, including a blockade.
Apart from putting its military on high alert, Taiwan has largely downplayed the threat of Chinese exercises and life has continued as normal among a population of 23 million who have lived in the shadow of bellicose rhetoric and the China’s saber rattling for over seven decades. .
