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Taiwan has warned that China’s military exercises are not only a rehearsal for an invasion of the self-governing island, but also reflect ambitions to control a large swathe of the western Pacific, as Taipei conducts its own exercises to stress it is ready to defend itself.
China has sent warships and planes across the median line between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and fired missiles into the waters surrounding Taiwan due to a recent visit to Taiwan by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The drill, which began on Thursday, disrupted flights and shipping in one of the world’s most traded regions.
Ignoring calls to de-escalate tensions, Beijing has instead extended the drills without announcing when they will end.
Taiwan’s foreign minister, Wu Zhaoxie, said China wants to establish its dominance in the western Pacific, in addition to annexing the island democracy that was torn apart from the mainland during the 1949 civil war. That would include controlling the East and South China Seas through the Taiwan Strait, and imposing a blockade to prevent the United States and its allies from providing aid should Taiwan come under attack, he told a news conference in Taipei.
Mr Wu said the exercises showed China’s “geostrategic ambitions beyond Taiwan”, which Beijing claims as its own territory.
He added that “China has no right to interfere or change” Taiwan’s democracy or its interactions with other countries.
Mr Wu’s assessment of the Chinese exercises was more grim than other observers, but echoed widespread concerns that Beijing was seeking to expand its influence in the Pacific, where the United States has military bases and extensive treaty partnerships.
China has said Ms Pelosi’s visit prompted it to conduct the drills, but Mr Wu said Beijing was using her visit as an excuse to intimidate the project.
After the visit, China also banned the import of some Taiwanese food products and cut off dialogue with the United States on a range of issues, including military engagement, fighting transnational crime and climate change.
Ms Pelosi also dismissed China’s outrage as a public stunt, noting on NBC’s Today show that “no one said a word” to a Senate delegation visit a few months ago. Later on MSNBC, she said Chinese President Xi Jinping was acting like a “feared bully.”
“I don’t think the Chinese president should control the schedules of congressmen,” she said.
Through its tactics, China has moved closer to the Taiwanese border and may be seeking to establish a new normal that could eventually control access to Taiwan’s ports and airspace.
But it could provoke a backlash from the island’s military, whose people strongly support a de facto independent status quo.
The United States, Taipei’s main backer, has also shown a willingness to face threats from Beijing.
Washington has no formal diplomatic relations with Beijing but is legally obligated to ensure Taiwan can defend itself and treats all threats against it as a matter of serious concern.
That leaves the question of whether Washington will send troops if China attacks Taiwan.
U.S. President Joe Biden has repeatedly said the U.S. will definitely do so — but staff quickly retracted those comments.
In addition to geopolitical risks, a protracted crisis in the Taiwan Strait, an important channel for global trade, could have major implications for international supply chains at a time when the world is already facing disruption and uncertainty due to the coronavirus pandemic and war in Ukraine .
In particular, Taiwan is an important supplier of computer chips to the global economy, including China’s high-tech sector.
In response to the exercise, Taiwan has placed its forces on alert, but has so far taken no active countermeasures.
On Tuesday, its military held a live-fire artillery exercise in Pingtung County, on its southeastern coast.
Major General Lu Weijie, spokesman for Taiwan’s Eighth Army Command, said the army would continue to train and accumulate forces to deal with threats from China. “Whatever the situation… this is the best way to defend our country.”
Taiwan, once a Japanese colony, had loose ties with the Chinese Empire and split from the mainland in 1949. Although it has never ruled Taiwan, China’s ruling Communist Party sees it as its own territory and seeks to isolate it diplomatically and economically. In addition to increasing the military threat.
Washington insists that Ms Pelosi’s visit has not changed its “one China policy”, in which the United States has no position on the status of the two sides, but hopes the dispute between the two sides can be resolved peacefully.
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