BEIJING — China staged fresh military drills around
Taiwan on Monday, slamming a new visit by US lawmakers to the island days after a
similar trip by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi triggered a furious response from
Beijing.
اضافة اعلان
The unannounced two-day trip by senior members of
Congress prompted China to renew its rhetoric that it would “prepare for war”
over Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy that Beijing’s leaders claim and have vowed
to one day seize.
The five-member congressional delegation — led by
Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts — met with President Tsai Ing-wen on Monday,
according to Washington’s de facto embassy in Taipei.
“The delegation had an opportunity to exchange views
with Taiwan counterparts on a wide range of issues of importance to both the
US and Taiwan,” it said.
Tsai told the lawmakers she wants “to maintain a
stable status quo across the Taiwan Strait” and “jointly maintain the
prosperity and stability of the Indo-Pacific region”, her office said in a
statement.
She said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine demonstrated
“the threat that authoritarian states pose to the world order”, according to
her office, and also thanked Washington for its support in the face of
Chinese military threats.
The bipartisan trip sparked another bellicose
response from Beijing, which said it had carried out a fresh round of “combat
readiness patrol and combat drills in the sea and airspace around Taiwan
island” on Monday.
“The Chinese People’s Liberation Army continues to
train and prepare for war, resolutely defend national sovereignty and
territorial integrity, and resolutely crush any form of ‘Taiwan independence’
separatism and foreign interference attempts,” Wu Qian, a spokesman for China’s
defense ministry, said.
“We warn the US and the DPP authorities: ‘Using
Taiwan to contain China’ is doomed to failure,” he added, referring to Taiwan’s
ruling Democratic Progressive Party.
In a defiant response, Taiwan’s defense ministry vowed
to face the latest drills “calmly and seriously and defend national security”.
“Apart from expressing condemnation (of China’s
drills), the Ministry of National Defense will comprehensively grasp the
movements in the sea and airspace around the Taiwan Strait,” the ministry said.
It added that its
forces had detected 30 Chinese planes and five ships operating around the
strait on Monday. Of those, 15 planes crossed the median line — an unofficial
demarcation that Beijing does not recognize.
Monday’s drills followed days of huge exercises
around Taiwan in the wake of Pelosi’s visit, which saw Beijing send warships,
missiles, and jets into the waters and skies near the island.
Taipei condemned those drills and missile tests as
preparation for an invasion.
China’s Communist Party has never ruled Taiwan but
says it will use force if necessary to take the island and bristles at any
perceived treatment of it as a sovereign nation state.
‘Evil neighbor’
That decades-old threat was
reiterated in a white paper published last week, when China’s Taiwan Affairs
Office said it would “not renounce the use of force” against its neighbor and
reserved “the option of taking all necessary measures”.
Taipei has remained defiant throughout the standoff
with Beijing, with Premier Su Tseng-chang saying the island welcomed “all
countries and friends across the world” who want to support it.
“We shouldn’t be too afraid to do anything, afraid
to let visitors come and afraid to let our friends come, just because we have
an evil neighbor next door,” he said.
Foreign minister Joseph Wu struck a similar tone
after meeting the US delegation on Monday.
“Authoritarian China can’t dictate how democratic
Taiwan makes friends, wins support, stays resilient and shines like a beacon of
freedom,” Wu said in a tweet.
Pelosi has stood by her visit which, combined with
Beijing’s response, sent tensions in the Taiwan Strait soaring to their highest
in decades.
President
Joe Biden said the US military was opposed to the
trip by his fellow Democrat, who is second in line to the presidency after the
vice president.
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