China’s military has targeted Taiwan with its biggest military exercise ever, in what the island’s government has called a mock attack, including further incursions along the midline and drone flights over Taiwan’s outlying islands.
Global pushback over China’s live-fire exercise, launched in response to a visit to Taiwan by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier in the week, continued with condemnation from senior US officials and foreign ministers from Australia and Japan.
Beijing has vociferously objected to Pelosi’s visit, saying it violates its “one China” principle, a domestic policy that underscores the government’s territorial claim to a democratic and de facto independent Taiwan.
On Saturday, Taiwan’s defense ministry said it had seen People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft and ships operating in the Taiwan Strait, believing they were mimicking an attack on its main island.
“Several batches of Chinese communist aircraft and ships conducting activities around the Taiwan Strait, some of which crossed the midline,” referring to the unofficial border in the waters between China and Taiwan.
Chinese warships and drones carried out simulated attacks on US and Japanese warships off the east coast of Taiwan and close to the Japanese islands, Reuters reported, citing sources.
Taiwan also said it had opened fire over several nights to stop PLA drones flying over the Kinmen Islands and unidentified planes flying over the Matsu Islands. The islands sit a few kilometers off the mainland coast of China.
News about the exercise came as Taiwan’s official media outlet, CNA, was found dead in a hotel room after suffering a heart attack. It said the 57-year-old’s room had no signs of infiltration and his family said he had a history of cardiac problems.
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Live-fire exercises began on Thursday, shortly after Pelosi departed Taipei, and targeted six large areas of the sea around Taiwan, including its territorial waters. These include 11 ballistic missiles fired towards or over the main island of Taiwan, which landed in the seas around it and the Exclusive Economic Zone of Japan.
His exercises have been praised in recent days by PLA officials, claiming they are a demonstration of a blockade strategy that could realistically be imposed on Taiwan for a day. The Chinese government has not ruled out the use of force to annex Taiwan.
Taiwan’s foreign minister on Friday described Pelosi’s visit as “important” in raising Taiwan’s profile as a democracy. He told the BBC that Beijing was trying to change the status quo, which Taiwan wants to maintain.
“Taiwan has no jurisdiction over mainland China and the People’s Republic of China has no jurisdiction over Taiwan. That is the reality.”
Beijing’s weeks of retaliation have also targeted the US, with sanctions imposed on Pelosi and his family and the suspension or cancellation of key agreements or cooperation, including climate crisis talks and efforts to ensure bilateral military communications.
US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said on Saturday that China should not negotiate important global matters such as the climate crisis “hostage”, adding comments by US special envoy for climate John Kerry that it did not punish the US. But “it punishes the world”.
Relations between China and the US and its allies have further deteriorated over the exercise.
In a joint statement after a meeting on the margins of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ Foreign Ministers’ Assembly, Blinken and the foreign ministers of Australia and Japan, Penny Wong and Yoshimasa Hayashi, urged China to immediately cease the exercise and the use of ballistics. Condemned missiles.
Senior officials expressed their “concern about the recent actions of the People’s Republic of China that seriously affect international peace and stability, including the use of large-scale military exercises”.
China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, walked out of a plenary session in Cambodia, as Hayashi spoke on Friday. Wang also called a rare news conference late Friday, where he accused Blinken of spreading misinformation.
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The exercises around Taiwan are mostly due to end by Monday, but more exercises have been announced in the Yellow Sea from next week.
Taiwan has also been hit by cyber attacks this week, including the websites of the President’s Office and the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense, as well as display screens in 7-Eleven stores and some train stations.
Wu Min-huan, head of Taiwan-based cyber surveillance group Doublethink Labs, said the attacks were a demonstration of the psychological and cyber warfare that Taiwan could expect to see in the event of an attack or invasion.
“They want to create an image that says your security is weak and we are powerful,” he said.
Wu said the Chinese government has serious concerns over cyber warfare, but this week’s attacks were mild and exposed weak digital links that Taiwan needed to address.
Like the media of the world, people in Taiwan are also watching. But Li Ya Chen, a 35-year-old journalist who spent two years in Shanghai between 2017 and 2019, said people in Taiwan were “not overly concerned”, despite Beijing’s anti-reaction.
“Pelosi’s visit last week showed that ultimately Taiwan wants good relations with the US, and that his visit can help bolster Taiwan’s international support. We are already used to Beijing’s anger, and we are better than danger.” Kind aware,” she said.
“The world thinks Taiwan is the most dangerous place on Earth now, but life goes on here for most of us.”
Additional reporting by Rebecca Ratcliffe and agencies
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