It’s Taiwan’s turn to stage a show of force against China. In fact, the Taiwanese army on Tuesday conducted a live artillery drill simulating the island’s defenses against a Chinese invasion. Beijing “used the drills and its military roadmap to prepare for the invasion of Taiwan,” Taiwanese chief of diplomacy Joseph Wu said during a news conference in Taipei following the Taiwanese maneuvers. “China’s real intention is to transform the status quo across the Taiwan Strait and the entire region,” he added. “It conducts large-scale military exercises and missile launches, as well as cyber attacks, disinformation campaigns and economic coercion to weaken the morale of Taiwanese people,” he said.
An AFP reporter at the scene saw the start of operations in Pingtung County (south) with flares and artillery fire just after 2:40 am. The drills ended around 3:30 a.m., said Lou Woei-jye, spokesman for Taiwan’s Eighth Corps. The army said several hundred soldiers were deployed, along with around 40 howitzers. A new exercise is planned for Thursday.
However, the spokesman for Taiwan’s Eighth Army Corps assured Monday that the Taiwan exercises are already planned and are not a response to ongoing Chinese maneuvers. The island also regularly organizes military exercises simulating a Chinese invasion.
Taiwan, an open digital state that wants to be the polar opposite of China
Chinese military exercises
Those drills come after China expanded its own joint sea and air maneuvers around the island on Monday, the largest Beijing has ever conducted around Taiwan. They were launched last week in response to the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Drills confirmed by the Chinese military continued on Tuesday involving air and sea units. The People’s Liberation Army Eastern Theater Command said in a statement that it was conducting training exercises across the island “focused on joint blockade and support operations.”
And although Taiwan has stressed that no Chinese warplanes or ships entered Taiwan’s territorial waters — within 12 nautical miles of land — during exercises in Beijing, the Chinese military has released similar video of an air force pilot flying over the island’s coast and mountains films from his cockpit, showing how close he had come to Taiwan’s coast. Ballistic missiles were also fired over the Taiwanese capital Taipei during maneuvers last week, according to Chinese state media. The People’s Liberation Army Eastern Command said naval reconnaissance planes, fighter jets, helicopters and a destroyer practiced locating and attacking targets in the waters off Taiwan.
Biden ‘not concerned’ but ‘concerned’
Enough to fear an escalation in tensions between Beijing and Taipei. Joe Biden wanted to reassure journalists about this, saying: “I’m not worried, but I’m worried that they are so excited. But I don’t think they do more than what they do,” President Joe Biden told reporters. The United States is also being targeted by the anger of Beijing, which has decided to withdraw from international climate and defense negotiations, provoking outrage from Americans and other Western countries. But Beijing defended its behavior on Monday, calling it “firm, forceful and appropriate” in the face of the US provocation. “(We) are only issuing a warning to those responsible for this crisis,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a news conference, pledging that China will “convert the illusion of the Taiwanese authorities to gain independence through the mediation of the United States.” , determined to break conditions”.
(With AFP)