In the two days of military maneuvers, 111 military aircraft and dozens of ships surrounded this island of democratic government, according to the Taipei Ministry of Defense. The exercises began three days after the new Taiwanese president, Lai Ching-te, took office with a speech denounced by China as a “confession of independence.”
Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian on Friday accused Lai of being “pushing our compatriots in Taiwan into a dangerous war situation”. “Every time (the movement supporting) ‘Taiwan independence’ provokes us, we will go one step further with our countermeasures, until we achieve the complete reunification of the homeland,” the spokesperson warned. The 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.
The military maneuvers carried out by China around Taiwan were a “flagrant provocation to the international order”, The Taipei executive declared on Saturday, after two days of exercises around this autonomous and democratically governed island whose sovereignty Beijing claims.
“China’s recent unilateral provocation not only undermines the status quo of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, but is also a blatant provocation to the international order, which has raised serious concern and condemnation from the international community,” said a statement from Taiwanese presidential office spokesperson Karen Kuo.
