Article Author:
Associated Press
Pingtung, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan's foreign minister said on Tuesday that China aims to dominate the East and South China Seas through the Taiwan Strait, upending the status quo in the Asia-Pacific and expressed a greater ambition to stop it. Help the Autonomous Island.
Foreign Minister Joseph Wu addressed a press conference in Taipei that Taiwan began live-fire military exercises to test combat readiness in response to ongoing Chinese exercises involving missile launches.
China has said the drills were triggered by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to the island last week, but Wu said China could He said he was using the visit as an excuse. China also banned imports from some Taiwan after the visit.
He said China aims to break the status quo and annex Taiwan.
Wu said he was trying to prevent him from coming to his aid.
The exercises also demonstrate China's "geopolitical ambitions beyond Taiwan," Wu said.
"China has no right to interfere or change the democratic process of the Taiwanese people or their exchanges with other countries," he said.
Taiwan and the mainland are separate jurisdictions, and "neither is subordinate to the other," Wu said.
Since Thursday, China has sent warships and planes across the Taiwan Strait midline to launch missiles into waters around Taiwan. Ignoring calls to defuse tensions, Beijing has extended what amounts to a lockdown without announcing when it will end.
