Days after Taiwan vice president William Lai stopped over in the United States, the Chinese military launched drills around the island on Saturday (August 19) as a “warning” over what it dubbed collusion between “separatists and foreign forces”, its defense ministry said.
Taiwanese Vice President William Lai’s recent trip to Paraguay to reinforce relations with his government’s last diplomatic partner in South America included stops in San Francisco and New York City.
China’s Communist Party claims democratic Taiwan as part of its territory and believes that it has no right to conduct foreign relations.
A spokesperson for China’s Eastern Theater Command said in a statement that the military exercises include the coordination of vessels and planes and their ability to seize control of air and sea spaces.
It was also testing the forces’ “actual combat capabilities,” Shi Yi said.
“The drills were a warning over provocations from pro-Taiwan independence forces and foreign forces,” he said.
Taiwan’s Defence Ministry came down heavily in condemnation of what it described as “irrational, provocative moves” in a statement.
The Ministry said that it would deploy appropriate forces to respond to the drills and also take action to “safeguard freedom and democracy.”
It said that its military would stand ready in the face of the threats posed by the Chinese army and emphasised that its forces have “the ability, determination, and confidence to safeguard national security.”
Taiwan and China broke apart in 1949 after a civil war that ended with the ruling Communist Party in control of the mainland. The self-ruled island has never been part of the People’s Republic of China, but Beijing sees Taiwan as a breakaway province to be retaken by force if necessary.
According to the Chinese media report, an unnamed official in China’s Taiwan Work Office strongly condemned what it called further collusion between Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party and the U.S. and said it was a “new provocative move.”
(With AP inputs)
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