China simulated attacks on “key targets” in Taiwan on Sunday, on the second day of military exercises scheduled to run until Monday, in response to the Taiwanese president’s meeting with the leader of the US House of Representatives.
The Chinese army simulated “precision strikes” against “key targets on the island of Taiwan and in the surrounding waters”, involving dozens of planes and ground troops, the Asian country’s state television reported.
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Beijing said that destroyers, speedboats and fighter planes, among others, are being mobilized in the maneuvers, which will last until Monday.
The military exercises began after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen met with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California on Wednesday. Beijing promised to respond to the meeting with “firm and forceful” measures.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry spotted 11 Chinese warships and 70 planes around the island on Sunday, after spotting as many the day before.
The ministry said it was responding to the maneuvers “calmly and calmly” and explained that the warplanes detected as of 4:00 p.m. local time (0800 GMT) included fighters and bombers.
The maneuvers are intended to establish China’s ability to “take control of the sea, airspace and information (…) to create a deterrence and a total encirclement” of Taiwan, Chinese state television said on Saturday.
Taiwan and the United States denounced the operation, called “Joint Sword”, and asked Beijing for “restraint” while ensuring that they keep their communication channels with China open.
“I’m a little worried, I’d be lying if I said otherwise,” Donald Ho, 73, told AFP in a Taipei park on Sunday. “If there is war, both sides will suffer a lot,” he added.
serious warning
China regards the island of Taiwan, population 23 million, as one of its provinces that has yet to reunify with the rest of its territory since the end of the civil war in 1949.
The moves “serve as a serious warning against collusion between separatist forces seeking ‘Taiwan independence’ and outside forces,” warned a Chinese military spokesman, Shi Yi.
“We are confident that we have sufficient resources and capabilities in the region to ensure peace and stability,” the State Department said.
The Chinese government announced it will hold live-fire exercises in the Taiwan Strait near the coast of Fujian, a province off the island, on Monday, according to local maritime authorities.
The exercises, which have an “operational” dimension, are intended to demonstrate that the Chinese military will be prepared “if provocations intensify” to “resolve the Taiwan issue once and for all,” military expert Song told AFP. Zhongping.
authoritarian expansionism
The AFP did not verify on Sunday an increase in military activities on the north coast of the island of Pingtan, in the province of Fujian, near where the exercises with live fire are to be carried out.
Along a road near the coast, Lin Ren played the Chinese anthem while selling coffee from behind a car. “I think (the exercises) clearly show that we have the means (…) to unify” the territory, the 29-year-old told AFP.
