Beijing. China this Friday accused Taiwan’s new president, Lai Ching-te, of pushing the autonomous island towards “war” and threatened to reinforce its “countermeasures” on the second day of major military maneuvers around Taiwan.
“Since taking office (on Monday), the leader of the Taiwan region has seriously questioned the one-China principle (…), which is leading our compatriots in Taiwan into a dangerous situation of war,” Defense Ministry spokesperson Wu Qian said in a statement.
“This is called playing with fire, and those who play with fire will surely get burned,” he added.
“Every time (the movement supporting) ‘Taiwan independence’ provokes us, we will take our countermeasures one step further, until we achieve the complete reunification of the homeland,” the spokesperson warned.
READ MORE: China tests its ability to ‘take over’ Taiwan
The Chinese army began two days of military exercises around Taiwan on Thursday, which on Monday celebrated the inauguration of Lai Ching-te as president, considered by Beijing as a “dangerous separatist.”
The Taiwanese Ministry of Defense reported that “as of 07:14 today (23:14 GMT on Thursday), 62 aircraft were detected (…) 47 of which crossed the median line,” in reference to the line that divides the Taiwan Strait, located between the island and mainland China.
This is the highest number of aircraft observed in 24 hours this year. The ministry also counted 27 Chinese navy and coast guard vessels mobilized for these exercises.
This device is part of a campaign to escalate China’s military pressure on this island with a democratic regime, with almost daily incursions by ships and planes in its surroundings and several large-scale exercises since 2022.
Its objective is to verify “the ability to seize power, jointly attack and control key territories,” Chinese military spokesman Li Xi said on Friday.
Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te delivers his inaugural address after taking the oath of office during the inauguration ceremony at the Presidential Office Building in Taipei. Photo: AFP (HANDOUT/AFP)
‘Inevitable’ unification
In Pingtan, a Chinese island located in the Taiwan Strait, tourists posed on Friday in front of a sign that read “The closest distance between the motherland and the island of Taiwan,” which is 126 km.
“We share common roots,” Chen Yan, a 60-year-old woman from Wuhan, central China, told this agency. “So I think it’s inevitable that there will be a unification.”
Images released by the Chinese army show soldiers leaving a building to take up their combat positions and military planes taking off to the sound of martial music.
The state chain CCTV reported that Chinese sailors contacted their Taiwanese counterparts on the high seas and warned them not to “resist reunification by force.”
And an animated graphic released by the Chinese military recreates a barrage of missiles against key targets in the north, south and east of the island, claiming they will “cut the blood vessels of Taiwan’s independence.”
The Taiwan Coast Guard denounced that four Chinese coast guard vessels entered “restricted waters” in its territory, and urged Beijing to “immediately stop its irrational behavior.”
The United Nations on Thursday called on all parties to avoid an escalation and the United States, Taipei’s main ally and weapons supplier, “firmly” urged China to act “with restraint.”
China and Taiwan have been governed separately since the end of the civil war in 1949, but Beijing claims sovereignty over the island and does not rule out the use of force to take control.
The territory barely has official diplomatic relations with 12 countries in the world, but it has a government, army and its own currency and plays a crucial role in the world economy as the main producer of semiconductors.
‘Serious warning’
Already before Lai’s victory in January’s presidential election, China warned that if he was elected, it would bring “war and decline” to the island.
In an inauguration speech that infuriated Beijing, Lai celebrated a “glorious” era for Taiwan’s democracy and urged China to “cease its political and military intimidation.”
READ MORE: Lai Ching-te assumes presidency of Taiwan and asks China to ‘stop’ intimidation
On Friday, the news agency Xinhua and the People’s Daily of the Communist Party They published editorials praising the maneuvers, lashing out at Lai’s “treacherous behavior” and promising “a hard blow.”
The day before, the spokesperson for Chinese diplomacy, Wang Wenbin, assured that the maneuvers are a “serious warning” addressed to the “independence supporters” of the island, who will end up “bloodied.”
The exercises take place in the Taiwan Strait and in the north, south and east of the territory, as well as on the Taipei-administered islands of Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu and Dongyin.
