Taiwan has expressed its condemnation of the military maneuvers carried out by Beijing around the island on Saturday, describing them as “an irrational act that endangers regional security and stability.”
The island’s Ministry of Defense has indicated in its official account on the social network Twitter that it has ordered its aircraft, ships and missile systems to “respond to the activities.”
Likewise, the ministry reported the incursion of 42 Chinese military aircraft into the Taiwan Air Identification Zone, of which 29 crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, which has functioned for decades as an unofficial but tacitly respected border for China. and Taiwan, a self-governing island whose sovereignty is claimed by Beijing.
In the past two years, Chinese military aircraft have carried out numerous raids on the Taiwanese ADIZ, intensifying at a time when tensions between the two territories have increased.
The Ministry also alerted the detection of eight Chinese military ships in the vicinity of the island.
The island’s armed forces “have closely followed” the situation and “responded accordingly” to “defend the country.”
The Eastern Theater of Operations of the Chinese Army notified today the organization of military maneuvers around Taiwan, after the Taiwanese president, Tsai Ing-wen, met this Wednesday in California with the speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States, Kevin McCarthy.
The spokesman for the Theater of Operations, Shi Yi, defined the maneuvers as “a serious warning” against “the provocation of the separatist forces” and a “necessary action to protect the national sovereignty and territorial integrity” of China.
The exercises, which will be both maritime and airborne and will take place in the north and south of the island, began this Saturday and will continue until Monday, the military entity reported on its official account on the Wechat social network.
Beijing on Thursday condemned Tsai’s stay in the United States, a country it accused of “collusion” with Taiwan, while advancing that it would respond with “resolute and effective measures.”
For their part, the maritime security authorities of the southeastern province of Fujian, located off Taiwan, warned in two statements that live-fire exercises will take place in the waters near the Chinese coast of that province on 8, 11, 13 , 15, 17 and 20 of this month, collected the local newspaper Global Times.
The situation is reminiscent of last August, when the visit to Taiwan of the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, angered Beijing, which responded with military maneuvers around the island to a trip it described as a “farce”. and “deplorable treason”.
Beijing has considered Taiwan a rogue province since Kuomintang nationalists withdrew there in 1949 after losing the civil war to the communist army.
The island is one of the biggest sources of conflict between China and the United States, mainly because Washington is Taiwan’s main arms supplier and would be its biggest military ally in the event of a war with China.
