A few days after President Lai’s first National Day speech, the Chinese government launched military exercises in the north, south and east of the island.
The Chinese military has launched a new war game with ships and aircraft near Taiwan, days after the autonomous democratic island celebrated its National Day.
Lieutenant Li Xi, a spokesman for the Chinese military’s Eastern Theater Command, said on Monday that the exercise, dubbed “Joint Sword-2024B,” took place in “the northern, southern and eastern regions of Taiwan Island.”
He added that the training “focuses on the subject of naval and air combat readiness patrols, blockades of major ports and areas,” and also includes “attacks on maritime and ground targets.”
Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense strongly condemned China’s “unreasonable and provocative actions” and said it had dispatched appropriate military forces to take appropriate responses to protect Taiwan’s freedom and democracy and protect its sovereignty. .
In recent years, China has stepped up its military activities around Taiwan, which it claims as its own territory. The latest drills come days after the island’s President William Lai Qingtoku gave his first National Day speech, vowing to resist any “annexation or encroachment” and to urge Beijing to represent the island’s 23 million people. He promised he had no right to do so.
“It was widely expected that the People’s Liberation Army would conduct military exercises in the wake of Mr. Lai’s National Day speech,” Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the German Marshall Fund’s Indo-Pacific program, told Al Jazeera. Ta. “This exercise has the effect of demonstrating to a domestic audience that the Chinese Communist Party is determined to defend Chinese territory. It also serves as a warning to Taipei and Washington not to cross Beijing’s red line. It is the purpose.”
The Chinese government has not ruled out the possibility of using force to bring Taiwan under its control, and said the drills were a warning against “separatist actions by the Taiwanese Independence Army.”
The government has accused Mr. Rai, who was elected in January and took office in May, of being a “separatist” and even held a military exercise called “Joint Sword-2024A” three days after taking office.
Military leader Lee said on Monday that the military exercises were “legitimate and necessary operations to protect national sovereignty and national unity.”
Mr. Lai appeared to be lobbying the Chinese government in his speech on October 10, expressing his hope for “healthy and orderly dialogue and exchanges” and seeking to use the Chinese government’s influence toward resolving conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine. I asked him to exercise it.
In an analysis of the speech published on Sunday, China’s state-run newspaper Global Times quoted an analyst who described Lai’s speech as a “poison pill wrapped in cellophane.”
Beijing is trying to remove Taiwan from the international scene, cut it off from world forums, and separate it from its few remaining formal diplomatic allies.
From a report by Erin Hale from Taipei
