Chinese forces launched alarming military drills around Taiwan on Monday after the island’s president made a speech calling for independence from China, according to multiple reports.
The Chinese military’s Eastern Theater Command surrounded the island from all sides with air and naval forces during the drills, which were meant to serve as a “stern warning to the separatist acts of ‘Taiwan independence,’” defense spokesman Li Xi said on Monday. The drills are the latest in a string of increasing acts of aggression against Taiwan, which the Western world fears China may soon invade.
“‘Taiwan independence’ is as incompatible with cross-Strait peace as fire with water, and provocations by ‘Taiwan independence’ forces will be responded with countermeasures,” the Chinese foreign ministry said on Monday.
As anticipated by Taiwan defense and security authorities after 2024A earlier in May, PLA Exercise Joint Sword 2024B comes in response to Lai’s National Day address. https://t.co/3Zt5mYjKG0 pic.twitter.com/KFTcFKg8ml
— Collin Koh
(@CollinSLKoh) October 13, 2024
(@CollinSLKoh) Various graphics posted on Monday depicted Chinese forces posted at six locations surrounding Taiwan, a tactic that China has warned it will implement to try to cut off the island from the rest of the world in the event of an invasion. The drills also focused on the readiness of cooperation between air, naval and ground forces, Li said.
Days before the drills, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te defended the island’s sovereignty last week during a speech on National Day. Beijing views Lai as a “troublemaker” and a “separatist.”
China “has no right to represent Taiwan,” Lai said during his speech, according to The Washington Post. “In an era when the international landscape is becoming increasingly chaotic, Taiwan will become more calm, more confident and stronger.”
The U.S. condemned China’s actions on Monday, calling it unnecessary and escalatory to conduct such drills out of anger over Lai’s speech.
— Indo-Pacific News – Geo-Politics & Defense (@IndoPac_Info) October 14, 2024
A Taiwanese Air Force F-16 fighter jet tracking a Chinese Navy J-15 carrier-based fighter during the Exercise “Joint Sword-2024B” off the coast of Taiwan. “The United States is seriously concerned by the People’s Liberation Army joint military drills in the Taiwan Strait and around Taiwan,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement. “The PRC response with military provocations to a routine annual speech is unwarranted and risks escalation.”
The U.S. and most Western nations do not formally recognize Taiwan as an independent nation. China views Taiwan as a rogue nation that needs to be brought back into the mainland, whether peacefully or by force. Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered his military to be ready to invade the island by 2027, though that doesn’t necessarily indicate China will actually launch an attack that year.
It isn’t clear what the U.S. role would be if China invaded Taiwan, as it maintains a policy of strategic ambiguity. The U.S. and the West already provide Taiwan with military equipment, but it is possible U.S. forces would become directly involved in defending the island if China launched an attack.
China could engage with Western nations in a military conflict if that occurred.
“If the US truly cares about cross-Strait stability, it should quit supporting ‘Taiwan independence’ separatists — as promised by U.S. leaders — and stop sending wrong signals,” the Chinese foreign ministry said on Monday.
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