Mon, 08 Aug 22 13:43:01 +0000

Tensions increase as China prolongs military exercises around Taiwan

Increased US tensions with China over Taiwan

Beijing — China conducted new military exercises Monday around Taiwan, the largest-ever exercise to encircle the island following a US visit. Beijing said it defied calls to end it. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.Beijing is outraged by the trip of Pelosi, the highest-ranking elected US official to visit Taiwan in decades.

The visit, which Beijing had warned about for weeks, prompted China to scrap a series of talks and cooperation agreements with Washington. 91}. Especially with regards to climate change and defense. China has also launched what analysts describe as a practice of blockades and eventual invasions of autonomous democratic islands that China claims to be its own territory. Deployed ballistic missiles.

The exercises were expected to end on Sunday, but China said on Monday that drills were still underway.

"The Chinese People's Liberation Army's Eastern Theater continues hands-on joint exercises and training in the sea and airspace around the island of Taiwan," the military said. rice field.

August 6, 2022 at Pingtan, one of his closest points to Taiwan from mainland China in Fujian province. A Chinese military plane flies over the island. HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/Getty

According to the PLA Eastern Command, the exercise "focused on organizing joint anti-submarine and maritime strike operations. was guessing."

Taipei accused Beijing of extending the exercise.

"China's provocations and aggression have undermined the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and heightened tensions in the region," the island's foreign ministry said in a statement.

Beijing was also scheduled to conduct live-fire drills in parts of the South China Sea and Yellow Sea on Monday.

Taiwan has remained defiant throughout China's exercises. Taiwan's military has announced that it will hold anti-landing exercises in southern Taiwan on Tuesday and Thursday.

A Taiwanese warship patrols near the east coast of Yilan County, Aug. 7, 2022. SAM YEH/AFP/Getty

"We will practice counter moves against a simulated enemy attack on Taiwan," said Taiwan. VIII Corps spokesman Lou Woei-jye told AFP. The

military said it included a deployment of several hundred troops and about 40 howitzers.

Taiwan claims that no Chinese aircraft or vessels entered Taiwan's territorial waters during the exercises. But to show how close it was to Taiwan's coast, the Chinese military released a video of an Air Force pilot filming the island's coastline and mountains from the cockpit.

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The scale and intensity of China's military exercises and its withdrawal from key climate and defense talks has sparked outrage in the United States and other democracies. US Secretary of State Antony Brinken said Washington was "determined to act responsibly" to avert a global catastrophe.

But Beijing on Monday defended its actions as a "resolute, forceful and appropriate" response to what it sees as US provocations.

"(We) are only warning the perpetrators," foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular briefing, noting that China was "resolutely refusing the Taiwanese authorities' illusion of winning independence through the United States." I will smash it down as," he promised.

"We urge the United States to seriously reflect and correct its mistakes immediately," he said.

On her CBS News "Face the Nation" in Washington on Sunday, Bi-khim Hsiao, Taiwan's representative to the United States, said it was her island that was threatening He said it wasn't in the US either.

"We have been under threat from China for decades to make international friends. If you have a child who is being bullied at school, I'm not saying don't go to , we're trying to find ways to deal with bullies, but that's exactly what Taiwan is doing, making our society stronger and more resilient. We have strengthened our defenses to ensure that we have the means to manage the risk.The risk is not posed by Taiwan, nor is it posed by the United States.The risk is Beijing.

Experts say training has made it possible for increasingly bold Chinese forces to carry out a draconian blockade of the island and attempt to come to Taiwan's aid.

"In some areas, the PLA may even exceed U.S. capabilities," said the Japan Strategic Research Forum. researcher and former US Navy officer, Grant Newsham, told AFP.

Fighting is confined to Taiwan's perimeter, the Chinese navy today is a dangerous adversary, and unless the United States and Japan somehow intervene, things will be difficult for Taiwan." 160}