China Surrounding Taiwan In New Drills
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BEIJING/TAIPEI (Worthy News) – China began surrounding Taiwan on Monday with a massive military force as part of drills it said was a warning against “separatist acts by Taiwan independence forces.”
No date was given for the drills to end.
The exercises, dubbed Joint Sword-2024B, “test the joint operations capabilities of the theater command’s troops,” the Chinese Defense Ministry said.
“The drill also serves as a stern warning to the separatist acts of Taiwan independence forces. It is a legitimate and necessary operation for safeguarding state sovereignty and national unity,” it said.
The exercises are taking place in “areas to the north, south and east of Taiwan Island,” according to Captain Li Xi, spokesman for the Chinese military’s Eastern Theater Command
In remarks monitored by Worthy Nees, China’s Defense Ministry said the drills were a response to Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te’s refusal to agree to Beijing’s demands that Taiwan views itself as a part of the People’s Republic of China under the rule of the Communist Party.
‘DRILLS PROVOCATION’
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry called the drills “a provocation” and said its forces were prepared to respond.
Security sources in Taiwan had said before Lai’s comments that his remarks could spark new Chinese war games. The country last held these in May, in what Beijing said was “punishment” for Lai’s inauguration speech that month.
Earlier on Sunday, the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theatre Command, responsible for an area that includes Taiwan, posted a propaganda video on its social media sites entitled “Fully prepared and biding one-time before the battle.”
Those comments added anxiety in democratically-ruled Taiwan, which was a Japanese colony before being unified with China at the end of World War II.
It split away in 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists fled to the island as Mao Zedong’s Communists swept to power on the mainland.
Lai took office in May, continuing the eight-year rule of the Democratic Progressive Party. The party rejects China’s demand to recognize Taiwan as part of China.
However, Beijing says China Taiwan’s independence is a “dead end” and warns that annexation by Beijing is a historical inevitability.
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