Beleaguered Taiwan turned belligerent on Tuesday and conducted its oౠwn military drills to counter China’s unprecedented war games around the breakaway island💟 which entered its fifth day with no respite in sight.
Launching its own military live-f🥀ire drills, Taiwan has accused Beijing of usiꦡng US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei last week to prepare for the invasion of the self-ruled island which China claims as part of the mainland under its one-China policy.
The Taiwanese ♚military has launched its 😼firing target flares and artillery for several hours, Lou Woei-jye, the spokesman for Taiwan's Eighth Army Corps told the media in Taipei.
Taiwan's military sai👍d the drills would once again take place on Thursday which will include the deployment of hundreds of troops and 40 howitzers.
The Eastern Theatre Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) announced that it continues to organise joint com𓃲bat exercises and training in the waters and airspace aroun♎d Taiwan Island on August 9, with emphasis on the joint blockade and joint support operations.
Reacting to Taiwan’s military drills🅺, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a media briefing in Beijing🃏 on Tuesday that the root cause of the current tensions across the Taiwan Strait is that the DPP (ruling Democratic Progressive Party) authorities have been colluding with foreign forces to seek independence and make provocations.
They refuse to recognise the one-Chinꦇa principle and attempt to change the status quo that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one and the same China, heꦑ said.
“We want to make it clear to the Taiwan authorities that any attempt to go against the trend of history or to resist reunification with military force is bound to be rejected by all Chinese people and bec💝ome futile. Such attempts are doomed to fail,” he said.
The PLA initially announced the unprecedented military drills in Taiwan Strait involvinওg all arms of its military from August 4-7 but continued beyond the schedule with no end in sight.
China's ꦓofficial media reports said the continuation of the drills will be a new normal around Taiwan aimed at crippling the island which broke away from China in 1949 opting to be a democracy opposing the Chinese Communist Party rule.
Recent polls show an o🐷verwhelming majority of Taiwanese oppose any sort of unification with China, 𓆏and a large and growing majority consider themselves "Taiwanese" and not "Chinese", the BBC reported.
In Taipei, the Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu in his address to the international media on Tꦬuesday alleged that “China has used the drills in its mꦿilitary play-book to prepare for the invasion of Taiwan”, using Pelosi’s visit as a pretext.
"It is conducting large-scale military exercises and missile launches, as well as cyberattack𓄧s, disinformation, and economic coercion, in an attempt to weaken public morale in Taiwan," he said, according to the text of his remarks released by the Taiwanese Foreign Ministry.
Wu said, “China has openl🍨y dec🃏lared its ownership over the Taiwan Strait” separating China and Taiwan.
“It 🎃aims to influence the international community’s freedom of navi💞gation in the waters and airspace of the Taiwan Strait by denying the status quo that it is an international waterway,” Wu said.
On this occas🎃ion, China has also taken specific actions to break the long-standing tacit agreement on the median li🍒ne of the Taiwan Strait, he said.
Using a range of its m💛issile tests, China is clearly trying to deter ಞother countries from interfering in its attempt to invade Taiwan, he said.
Its rehearsal of anti-access and area-deni🦂al (A2/AD) tactics 🌄gives us a clear image of China’s geostrategic ambitions beyond Taiwan, he said.
Tꦛaiwan certainly has the right to maintain relationships with other countries and to participa꧅te in and contribute to the international community, he said defending Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, he said.
“The people of Taiwan also have the right to e𝔍xpress their collective will through a democratic system. China has no right to int♏erfere in or alter this,” Wu said.
He ca൲utioned the countries in the region that China’s ambitions goes beyond Taiwan.
“Although Chin♏a seems to be targeting Taiwan now, its activities around the world have shown that its motivation is far beyond Taiwan. China is now determined to link the East and South China Seas through the Taiwan Strait so that this entire area becomes its internal waters,” he said.
“And its intentions are not likely to stop there,... in May this year, China signed a sec🐷urity agreement with the Solomon Islands, and intended to do the same with more Pacific countries,” he said.
“China’s influenc🔯e also extends into Southea🌸st Asia, South Asia, and even Africa and Latin America. 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 said.
