China conducts new drills As US Lawmakers Visit Taiwan
On Monday, China conducted new military exercises near Taiwan in retaliation for another trip by US politicians to the island, only days after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip sparked an angry reaction from Beijing.
Senior members of Congress took an unscheduled two-day excursion, which caused China to reiterate its threat to “prepare for war” over Taiwan, a self-governing democracy that Beijing’s leaders claim and have sworn to one day annex.
According to Washington’s de facto embassy in Taipei, the five-person congressional delegation met with President Tsai Ing-wen on Monday. The mission was led by Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey.
“The delegation had an opportunity to exchange views with Taiwan counterparts on a wide range of issues of importance to both the United States and Taiwan,” it said.
According to a statement from her office, Tsai told the parliamentarians that she wishes to “keep a stable status quo across the Taiwan Strait” and “jointly sustain the prosperity and stability of the Indo-Pacific region.”
According to her office, she stated that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine showed “the threat that authoritarian governments represent to the world order” and praised Washington for its assistance in the face of Chinese military provocations.
The journey was made by both parties, which triggered yet another belligerent response from Beijing, which claimed to have conducted fresh battle maneuvers and patrols in the sea and airspace surrounding Taiwan island on Monday.
“The Chinese People’s Liberation Army continues to train and prepare for war, resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and resolutely crush any form of ‘Taiwan independence’ separatism and foreign interference attempts,” spokesperson for China’s defense ministry, Wu Qian said.
“We warn the US and the DPP authorities: ‘Using Taiwan to contain China’ is doomed to failure,” he added, referring to Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party.
Taiwan’s defense ministry responded defiantly, promising to deal with the most recent drills “calmly and seriously and preserve national security.”
The Ministry of National Defense promised to thoroughly understand the movements in the sea and airspace surrounding the Taiwan Strait “in addition to condemning (China’s drills).”
It claimed that on Monday, its soldiers had spotted five ships and 30 Chinese jets patrolling in the vicinity of the strait. Of those, 15 aircraft crossed the median line, an unauthorized boundary that Beijing does not acknowledge.
In the wake of Pelosi’s visit, which saw Beijing send warships, missiles, and jets into the waters and sky nearby the island, there were days of extensive drills all around Taiwan.
These exercises and missile testing were denounced by Taipei as invasion preparations.
The Communist Party of China has never ruled Taiwan, but it asserts that it will use force to seize the island if necessary and bristles at any suggestion that it should be treated as an independent nation state.
Evil Neighbor
In a white paper released last week, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office underlined that country’s long-standing threat to use force against its neighbor and reserve the right to “take all necessary measures.”
Premier Su Tseng-chang of Taipei said that the island welcomed “all countries and friends across the world” who want to assist it, and Taipei has stayed stubborn during the impasse with Beijing.
Because of the bad neighbor next door, he continued, “we shouldn’t be too afraid to do anything, afraid to let visitors come and afraid to let our friends arrive.”
Following his discussion with the US team on Monday, foreign minister Joseph Wu used a similar tone.
Wu wrote in a tweet, “Authoritarian China can’t tell how democratic Taiwan gets friends, wins support, perseveres, and shines like a beacon of freedom.
Pelosi has maintained her position despite the fact that her visit and Beijing’s response caused the Taiwan Strait to experience its worst level of tension in decades.
President Joe Biden, who is second in line to the presidency after the vice president, stated that the US military was against his fellow Democrat’s travel.
Taiwan is supported by all sides of the political aisle in Washington, D.C., and Congress is a constitutionally equal body of government in the United States. Lawmakers are also free to travel wherever they like.
In 1979, the US shifted its diplomatic missions from Taipei to Beijing. However, it continues to be Taiwan’s most important ally and keeps up de facto diplomatic ties with Taipei.
The official position of Washington is to reject both Taiwan’s declaration of independence and China’s forced change of the island’s status.
It purposefully doesn’t say whether it would support Taiwan militarily if China invaded.
Senior US government figures have visited Taiwan for years, and even Pelosi’s travel was not unprecedented at the time; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich went there in 1997.
But both Donald Trump and Biden, the previous president, boosted the frequency and prominence of US visits.
A rush of delegations from Europe and other Western allies have also visited Taiwan recently, in part as a reaction to Beijing’s increasingly assertive posture under Chinese President Xi Jinping.
AFP
