This Thursday, China began two days of military exercises “around the island of Taiwan” as “strong punishment” for “separatist acts” in this territory after the inauguration of a new president detested by Beijing.
Considered by the communist authorities as a “dangerous separatist,” Lai Ching-te was sworn in as president on Monday with a speech in which celebrated Taiwan’s democracy and urged China to “cease their political and military intimidation.”
China, which claims sovereignty over this separately governed island since 1949 and has never ruled out the use of force to take control of it, denounced his words as a “confession of independence.”
The maneuvers began early Thursday with the deployment of aircraft and warships “around the island of Taiwan” for test your combat capabilitiesannounced the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.
“They will end up bloody”
They are a “serious warning” addressed to the “independence” of the island, which They will end up “bloody”said a spokesperson for Chinese diplomacy, Wang Wenbin.
Taiwanese authorities responded immediately and mobilized their sea, air and land forces.
“We will continue to defend the values of freedom and democracy,” said President Lai. “I will remain on the front lines with our brothers and sisters in the military to defend national security together,” he added.
In coordination with the military, the Taiwan Coast Guard deployed its fleet to “monitor movements in the surrounding maritime waters” and defend “the country’s sovereignty and security with a firm attitude.”
Taiwan deployed four fighter jets from the Hsinchu base, about 60 km southwest of Taipei.
In images released by the Taiwanese Coast Guard on social networks, officers appear urging the Chinese ships, through a loudspeaker, to leave the site.
“Their movements affect the order and security of our country, turn around and leave our waters as soon as possible,” says one of them.
The exercises “are taking place in the Taiwan Strait, to the north, south and east of the island of Taiwan,” reported the official Chinese press agency Xinhua.
According to Colonel Li Xi, army spokesman, the maneuvers involve “strong punishment for separatist acts by ‘Taiwan independence’ forces” and a serious warning against interference and provocation by external forces.” With them, “joint real combat capabilities will be put to the test,” he said.
For his part, professor at the National Defense University in Beijing, Zhang Chi, commented on state television CCTV that the exercises seek “impose an economic blockade on the island”, “strangling” the port of Kaohsiung, which is of strategic interest to Taiwan.
With that block “vital energy imports for Taiwan” may be cut and “block the support that some US allies provide to the ‘Taiwan independence’ forces,” according to the academic.
The president of Taiwan, Lai Ching-te. Photo: Sam Yeh / AFPRelations between Beijing and Taipei have deteriorated significantly since the rise to power of the Taiwanese president. Tsai Ing-wen in 2016 who, like his successor Lai, is a firm defender of the democratic model of the island.
Beijing increased military, diplomatic and economic pressure on this island of 23 million inhabitants which, although it hardly enjoys international recognition, It has a government, an army and its own currency.
“China clearly feels it needs to send a very strong message to Lai and anyone who supports him,” analyst Bill Bishop wrote in his influential Sinocism newsletter.
“We were expecting something like that”
“We were hoping for something like that, honestly.”, recognized the deputy commander of the US army in the region, Lieutenant General Stephen Sklenka, at an event in Canberra. “It’s worrying,” he added.
People on the Chinese coast look at the Taiwanese island of Kinmen in the distance. Photo: Greg Baker / AFPIn August, China launched military exercises in response to then-Vice President Lai’s stop in the United States amid a trip to Paraguay.
Months earlier, in April, Chinese armed forces pretended to surround the island after Tsai met in California with then-U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
In 2022, China held massive military exercises in the area after McCarthy’s predecessor Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan.
Events in this area can have important economic consequences, since 70% of the world’s semiconductor production comes from Taiwan and more than 50% of freight containers cross the strait that separates this island from mainland China.
