China drills part of game plan for carrying out invasion, says Taiwan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 9

China has used drills in its military playbook to prepare for the invasion of Taiwan, said the island nation’s Foreign Minister Jaushieh Joseph Wu.

China is conducting large-scale military exercises and missile launches, as well as cyber-attacks, disinformation and economic coercion in an attempt to weaken public morale in Taiwan.

“Its rehearsal of anti-access and area-denial (A2/AD) tactics gives us a clear image of China’s geostrategic ambitions beyond Taiwan,” he said at a press conference on Tuesday. In addition, China has hindered the normal operations of one of the busiest air and shipping routes in the Indo-Pacific region. This has had a serious impact on international transportation and trade, and undermined regional peace and security.

China has also taken specific actions to break the long-standing tacit agreement on the median line of the Taiwan Strait. And after the drills conclude, China may try to routinise its action in an attempt to wreck the long-term status quo across the Taiwan Strait, he feared.

“China’s real intention behind these military exercises is to alter the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and the entire region. This has already brought significantly unstable elements into the mix, threatening regional security,” said the Taiwanese Foreign Minister.

“China’s behaviour towards Taiwan is merely a pretext. Its ambitions and impact is extending far beyond Taiwan. It is thus critical that all freedom-loving nations work together to explore means to respond to the expansion of authoritarianism,” he observed. China on the other hand said the “reckless move” by US Congress Speaker Nancy Pelosi had undermined China’s sovereignty and sent a seriously wrong signal to the separatist forces for “Taiwan independence”. The Chinese embassy here said Taiwan was an inalienable part of China’s territory and described its actions as justified and reasonable.

THE STANDOFF

• There is a continuing standoff around the median line involving about 10 warships each from China and Taiwan.
• Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said China’s continued military exercises “highlight that its threat of force has not decreased”.
• It said 16 Chinese fighters had crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait at its northern end. — Agencies

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