China military exercises: In its continued attempt to express discontentment over the US-Taiwan growing ties, China has announced to hold three days of military exercises around the East Asian country from today (April 8). The People's Liberation Army's Eastern Theatre Command announced this after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen held a meeting with United States House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday (April 5).
In a brief statement, the Chinese army said that it would conduct "combat readiness patrols" and drills "as planned" in the Taiwan Strait and to the north, south and east of Taiwan. Following a meeting between the US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and the island's President, China threatened retaliation against Taiwan, claiming that the US was on a "wrong and dangerous road."
China had warned of repercussions
Earlier China had warned of unspecified repercussions if the meeting takes place, having conducted military drills around Twain in August 2022, in retaliation to the then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taipei. However, Speaker McCarthy hosted Taiwanese President Ing-wen in a show of U.S. support for the self-governed island, which China claims as its own, along with a bipartisan delegation of more than a dozen US lawmakers.
The Biden administration maintains there is nothing provocative about the visit by Tsai, which is the latest of a half dozen to the US Yet it comes as the US-China relationship has fallen to historic lows, with US support for Taiwan one of the main points of difference between the two powers.
China irked by US-Taiwan meetings
But the formal trappings of the meeting, and the senior rank of some of the elected officials in the delegation from Congress, could lead China to view it as an escalation. No speaker is known to have met with a Taiwanese president on US soil since the US broke off formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979. In August, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi travelled to Taiwan to meet with Tsai. China responded with its largest live-fire drills in decades, including firing a missile over the island.
It is pertinent to mention here that Taiwan and China split in 1949 at the end of a civil war and have no official relations, although they are linked by billions of dollars in trade and investment.
(With AP inputs)
