Taiwan sends forces to areas around the island after China launches "punitive" exercises
Kyiv • UNN
China has launched large-scale military exercises around Taiwan in response to the inauguration of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, which Beijing views as separatist activity, while Taiwan has deployed troops and tracked Chinese movements to defend its territory.
Taiwan has sent forces to areas around the island after China launched "punitive" exercises on Thursday, Reuters reports, UNN writes.
Details
An angry China launched "punitive" drills around Taiwan on Thursday in what it said was a response to "separatist activities," sending in heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks, while state media condemned the recent inauguration of Taiwanese President Lai Tsingde.
Taiwan's Ministry of Defense condemned the drills, saying it had deployed forces to areas around the island, that its air defense and ground-based missile forces were tracking targets, and that it was confident it could defend its territory.
"The launch of military exercises in this regard not only does not contribute to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, but also emphasizes (China's) militaristic mentality," the ministry said.
Taiwan's presidential administration expressed regret that China's "unilateral military provocations threaten the island's democratic freedoms, regional peace and stability," but said that people can rest assured that Taiwan will be able to ensure its security.
China's state-run CCTV said that Lai's inaugural speech was "extremely harmful" and that China's countermeasures were "legitimate, lawful, and necessary.
Lai's speech was a recognition of Taiwan's desire for independence and undermined peace and stability across the strait, the report said.
Taiwan's future can only be decided by China's 1.4 billion people, not just Taiwan's 23 million, the report added.
A senior Taiwanese official told Reuters that the drills are part of a scenario that Taiwan has been waiting for and that the island's government "fully understands" Chinese military movements.
Taiwanese officials said on the eve of the inauguration that they were monitoring the movements of the Chinese military. The last time China conducted large-scale military exercises near Taiwan was in 2023 and 2022.
China's state media published a map of the exercise zones in five areas around Taiwan and Taiwanese-controlled islands off the Chinese coast.
Taiwanese officials told Reuters that these areas are outside of Taiwan's contiguous zone, which is 24 nautical miles off the main island's coast.
One official said that China has not announced any no-fly zones, and Taiwan has not seen any large-scale movements of Chinese ground and missile forces.
Su-jun, a researcher at Taiwan's leading military think tank, the Institute for National Defense and Security Studies, said that although the exercise would last only two days, its scope was large compared to previous exercises, as it included Taiwan's remote islands.
According to him, this is to demonstrate China's ability to control the seas and prevent interference by foreign forces.
"Political signals are stronger than military ones," he added.
Addendum
In August 2022, China conducted live-fire military exercises around Taiwan immediately following a visit by former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which was strongly condemned by Beijing. This series of exercises, the scale of which was unprecedented, lasted four days, followed by several days of additional exercises.
