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Pingtung, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan’s foreign minister said Tuesday that China aims to control the East and South China Seas through the Taiwan Strait, describing a larger ambition to upend the status quo in the Asia-Pacific and prevent countries from helping itself. – Manage islands.
Foreign Minister Wu Zhaoxie was speaking at a news conference in Taipei as Taiwan began conducting live-fire military exercises to test combat readiness in response to ongoing Chinese exercises that include launching missiles.
China said U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island last week prompted it to conduct the drills, but Wu said China used her visit as an excuse. After the visit, China also banned some Taiwanese imports.
China’s goal, he said, was to upend the status quo and annex Taiwan, an autonomous island republic it claims as its own territory.
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Wu said the drills were a rehearsal for an invasion of the island and were designed to prevent other countries from providing aid to the island.
The drills also showed China’s “geostrategic ambitions beyond Taiwan,” Wu said.
“China has no right to interfere or change” the democratic process of the Taiwanese people or their dealings with other countries, he said.
Wu said Taiwan and the mainland are different jurisdictions and “are not subordinate to each other.”
Since Thursday, China has sent warships and planes across the centerline of the Taiwan Strait and fired missiles into the waters surrounding the island. Ignoring calls to de-escalate tensions, Beijing has extended what amounts to a blockade, but has not announced when it will end. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from the Syndicated News feed, the body of the content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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