China concluded its military maneuvers around Taiwan on Monday with a simulation of the blockade of the island and with the anticipated participation of Shandong, the second aircraft carrier of the Asian country. The Chinese Defense Ministry announced the “complete success” of the exercises, which began on Friday in retaliation for last Wednesday’s meeting in California between Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and the Speaker of the US House of Representatives. USA, Kevin McCarthy.
The Chinese Army’s Eastern Theater of Operations reported that it “conscientiously tested under actual combat conditions” these forces, which completed “various combat readiness tasks.” The forces are “ready to resolutely crush any form of separatism and attempts at foreign interference,” spokesman Shi Yi said.
The maneuvers focused on simulating a “maritime blockade” of the island: numerous destroyers and frigates carried out patrol missions and combat drills and rehearsed assaulting fleeing hostile ships. The Chinese ships operated in the northwest, southwest and east of Taiwan, seizing “advantageous positions” through “agile manoeuvres” and “pressing the enemy at high speed,” according to state-run CCTV.
In the event of a conflict, the waters east of Taiwan are considered by the island’s authorities as an evacuation zone, so Chinese actions there “would play an important role” in intercepting ships fleeing the island, a local expert explained. to Global Times.
The Shandong, China’s second aircraft carrier, also participated in the exercises along with at least five other military ships, as the Chinese press had anticipated. According to analysts quoted by the Taiwanese agency CNA, the Shandong presence in the exercises is aimed at “verifying that the Chinese forces can launch attacks from various points and blockade the island without having to use missiles.” “The fact that the Shandong has sailed in eastern Taiwanese waters means that the Chinese military is also seeking to block the potential passage of US ships to support Taiwan,” says the expert, Lin Yingyou, from Tamkang University.
Likewise, a total of 59 planes and eleven military ships from China made incursions on Monday morning in areas around Taiwan, the official CNA news agency reported.
Meanwhile, China reiterated that the “independence of Taiwan and peace and stability” in the Strait of Formosa are “incompatible” and that what concerns the island is a “purely internal” matter. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin further asserted that the “biggest threat to peace in Taiwan” is “separatist activities and collusion with foreign forces.” The spokesman reiterated what was said last Saturday by the Chinese Army, which described the maneuvers as “necessary to protect national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
For its part, Taiwan again expressed on Monday its “strong condemnation” against the military maneuvers and its Defense Ministry indicated on Twitter that the island’s armed forces remain on “high alert” for “contingencies”, “firmly maintaining their positions The 24 hours of the day”. For the island, for Beijing to carry out the “provocative” maneuvers in protest of the meeting between Tsai and McCarthy amounts to “clearly challenging the international order” and “undermining the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait and the region.”
“It is a fundamental right of a sovereign country that its head of state carry out diplomatic activities,” said the spokesman for the Taiwanese Foreign Ministry, Jeff Y.J. Liu, who added that “China does not have any right to comment on this.” Likewise, the spokesman thanked the “active voice” of the United States. at a “crucial moment”, on a day in which the American destroyer USS Milius sailed in full tension through the Mischief Reef, located in the South China Sea, waters that Beijing disputes with several Southeast Asian countries. However, Liu assured that “Taiwan will not escalate conflicts or provoke disputes,” although he assured that the island “will firmly defend its sovereignty and national security.” “Beijing has to exercise self-control and stop coercing the Taiwanese people,” he said.
Beijing has considered Taiwan a rogue province since Kuomintang nationalists withdrew there in 1949 after losing the civil war to the communist army.
