(Fenggang Town) Taiwan’s military on Tuesday conducted live-fire artillery exercises to simulate the island’s defense against a Chinese invasion, which the chief diplomat accuses of preparing.
Updated at 12:17 AM.
An AFP correspondent at the scene saw the start of operations in Pingtung County (south) after 0:40 GMT with flares and artillery fire. Lu Wei Jie, a spokesman for the Eighth Corps in Taiwan, said the exercises ended at around 1:30 a.m. GMT.
The military said the exercises, which are scheduled to take place again on Thursday, will include the deployment of several hundred soldiers and about 40 howitzers.
China launched its largest military exercise around Taiwan last week, in response to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top US official, visiting the decades-old self-ruled island.
Beijing “used its own military exercises and roadmap to prepare for the invasion of Taiwan,” Joseph Wu called during a press conference in Taipei after the Taiwan exercises. “China’s real intention is to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and across the region.”
“It carries out large-scale military exercises and missile launches, as well as cyber attacks, disinformation campaigns and economic coercion to weaken the morale of the people in Taiwan,” he added.
China considers Taiwan, with a population of about 23 million, as one of its provinces, which has not yet succeeded in reunification with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese Civil War (1949).
Mr. Lu emphasized on Monday that the Taiwanese exercises had already been identified and that it was not a response to the ongoing Chinese exercises.
The island regularly holds military exercises simulating a Chinese invasion. The most recent was last month when it trained to fend off attacks from the sea during a “joint intercept operation”. This was his biggest annual workout.
Biden ‘not worried’
The Taiwan exercises come after China expanded its joint naval and air exercises around the island on Monday.
It did not confirm whether these operations would continue on Tuesday.
For Washington, the risk of escalation from Beijing is low. “I’m not worried, but I’m worried they’re on the move a lot. I don’t think they’re going to do anything else,” Joe Biden told reporters at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
Joseph Wu did not fail to thank his Western allies during his press conference, including Nancy Pelosi, for standing up to China.
He said: “It also sends a clear message to the world that democracy will not succumb to the bullying of tyranny.”
Taiwan said that no Chinese warplanes or ships entered Taiwan’s territorial waters – within 12 nautical miles of land – during the Beijing exercises.
But last week, the Chinese military released a video of an air force pilot filming the island’s coast and mountains from his cockpit, showing how close he is to the Taiwanese coast.
Chinese state media reported that ballistic missiles were fired at the Taiwanese capital, Taipei, during the exercises last week.
The Eastern Theater Command of the People’s Liberation Army said that naval patrol planes, fighters, helicopters and a destroyer are training to locate and attack targets in the waters off Taiwan.
The scale and intensity of China’s exercises — along with its withdrawal from international climate and defense negotiations — angered the United States and other Western countries.
But Beijing on Monday defended its behavior, calling it “resolute, strong and appropriate” in the face of US provocations.
“(We) are only issuing a warning to those responsible for this crisis, and a promise that China will” resolutely break the delusion of the Taiwanese authorities to gain independence through an intermediary from the United States, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a news conference. States”.
