He Taiwan Ministry of Defense reported this Friday the detection of almost fifty fighters and about one thirty Chinese warships in the surroundings of the island within the framework of the second and last day of the military maneuvers of the Chinese Army initiated in response to statements by the newly elected Taiwanese president, William Lai, who urged the Beijing regime to “face the existence” of the territory as a completely independent entity.
“49 People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, 19 PLA ships and 7 Chinese Coast Guard ships have been detected operating around Taiwan at around 6:00 a.m. (local time). 35 of the fighters have crossed Taiwan’s air defense identification zone,” the ministerial portfolio announced on its X social network account.
On the first day of exercises, the military portfolio detected 19 Navy ships and 7 other Chinese Coast Guard ships operating around Taiwan and the Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu and Dongyin islands, archipelagos under Taiwanese control and located a few kilometers from China, according to the latest official report.
At a press conference, Major General Huang Wen-chi He assured that as of Thursday afternoon none of those ships or planes had entered the 24 nautical mile perimeter around the main island of Taiwan.
The officer also pointed out that during the first stages of the exercises the island Armed Forces had not detected live fire drills.
He PLA Eastern Operations Command reported on the start of the second day of air, sea and land operations in the surroundings of the island, which will be focused on “in pjoint preparation patrols for maritime and air combatjoint seizure of comprehensive control of the battlefield, joint precision strike against key objectives and other issues.”
Additionally, Chinese forces will carry out a maritime assault trainingin land attack, in air and anti-submarine defense “further testing its real combat capabilities.”
China’s military action takes place in the same week that William Lai assumed the presidency of Taiwan, who on Thursday asked the population for calm, mobilized the island’s Armed Forces and assured that his Government will “determinedly” protect democracy. Taiwanese.
At the start of these exercises on Thursday, the Chinese military described them as “a strong punishment for the separatist acts of the ‘independence’ forces.” Taiwan‘”.
Images released by the Chinese army showed soldiers leaving a building to take up their combat positions and military aircrafts taking off to the sound of martial music.
The Chinese propaganda network CCTV reported that regime sailors had called their Taiwanese counterparts on the high seas and warned them not to “resist reunification by force.”
The new Taiwanese president assured in a speech on Thursday that “the values of freedom and democracy” will continue, although without directly mentioning the ongoing military maneuvers.
From Beijing, the Chinese authorities have reiterated on numerous occasions that the Taiwan independence will not be tolerated and that they will not rule out the use of force to prevent secession.
Ties between China and the island of Taiwan, which it considers another province under its sovereignty, were severed in 1949, after the forces of the nationalist party Kuomintang suffered defeat in the civil war against the Communist Party and they will move to the archipelago.
Relations were reestablished only at a business and informal level in the late 1980s.
(With information from EFE and Europa Press)
