Not a week has passed since Lai Ching-te took office as president of Taiwan or the Republic of China, as they call the island located off mainland China, and he is already facing pressure from China.
The Chinese Army continues its military maneuvers around Taiwan this Friday with the mobilization of 42 aircraft and 31 warships, in a show of pressure against the new Taiwanese president, Willian Lai, and a warning signal against possible “interference” by other countries.
There are two days of military exercises “around the island of Taiwan” as “strong punishment” for “the separatist acts” in this territory after the inauguration of a new president detested by Beijing.
The separation of China and Taiwan materialized in 1945, when some two million Chinese belonging to the Nationalist Party or Kuomintang took refuge there fleeing communism. Since Thursday, at least 28 planes have crossed the dividing line of the Taiwan Strait, an unofficial border that had been respected by Beijing and Taipei for decades, or entered the self-proclaimed Taiwanese Air Identification Zone (ADIZ), the highest number in so far this year.
For its part, Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense said that it had detected 49 Chinese aircraft within the framework of the Beijing maneuvers, “of which 35 crossed the median line,” in reference to the line that divides the Taiwan Strait, located between the island and mainland China.
A mainland Chinese academic says Beijing’s main challenge is to “limit international sympathy” toward Taiwan and ensure there is no “change in the status quo.”
Considered by communist authorities as a “dangerous separatist,” Lai Ching-te was sworn in as president on Monday with a speech in which he celebrated Taiwan’s democracy and urged China to “cease its political and military intimidation.”
China, which claims sovereignty over the 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 military aircraft and ships “around the island of Taiwan,” the Chinese People’s Liberation Army announced.
These maneuvers are a “serious warning” addressed to the “independence supporters” of the island, who will end up “bloodied,” 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.
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.”
Strangle Taiwan economy
Professor at the National Defense University in Beijing, Zhang Chi, commented on state television CCTV that the exercises seek to “impose an economic blockade on the island”, “strangling” the port of Kaohsiung, which is of strategic interest for Taiwan.
With this blockade, “vital energy imports for Taiwan” can be cut off and “blocked the support that some US allies provide to the ‘Taiwan independence’ forces,” according to the academic.
The Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, asked all parties “to refrain from any action that leads to an escalation of tensions in the region,” according to his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, indicated this Thursday.
The United States “firmly called on Beijing to act with restraint,” said a senior US official.
The military exercises deployed by China “are reckless, raise the risks of escalation and violate norms that have maintained regional peace and stability for decades,” he added.
Relations between Beijing and Taipei have deteriorated significantly since the rise to power of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in 2016, who, like her successor Lai, is a staunch defender of the island’s democratic model.
Beijing increased military, diplomatic and economic pressure on this island of 23 million inhabitants that, although it barely enjoys international recognition, has a government, an army and its own currency.
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. (YO)
