The Chinese army announced Tuesday, April 1, having mobilized land, naval and air forces around Taiwan, for large -scale military maneuvers simulating a blockade from the island, whose initiatives in favor of independence would lead to “war”, warned Beijing.
The Chinese armed forces “are getting closer to the island of Taiwan from multiple directions,” said Shi Yi, spokesperson for the Chinese army command, describing maneuvers as “legitimate and necessary to safeguard sovereignty and national unity of China”.
“These exercises are mainly focused on the preparation for Mer-Air combat, the joint acquisition of a global superiority, the assault of maritime and land targets and the blockade of key areas and sea routes,” detailed the spokesperson. In response, Taipei said he had dispatched his own planes and ships, and deployed missile systems.
A “firm warning”
The Chinese Communist Party has never governed Taiwan but claims the archipelago as an integral part of its territory and does not exclude the use of force to take control of it. Beijing has intensified in recent years the deployment of fighter planes and warships around Taiwan in order to support his claim, which Taipei rejects. According to the Taiwanese defense, China mobilized 19 warships around Taiwan within 24 hours of Tuesday 06:00 (midnight French time), including an aircraft carrier, the Shandong.
These new maneuvers are intended to convey a message of “firm warning and energetic deterrence” to the alleged separatists of the island, the Chinese armed forces said on Tuesday.
Chinese coast guard also announced that they had led “law execution patrols […] And conducted exercises such as inspections and captures, interception and detention operations against unauthorized ships, “said a spokesperson’s statement, Zhu Anqing.
The Taiwanese presidency “firmly condemned” Chinese maneuvers. For Prime Minister Cho Jung-Tai, “the use of military demonstrations is not what modern and progressive societies have to engage”.
For Beijing, Taiwan’s independence “means war”
The Democratically elected Taiwanese President Lai Ching-Te described China “hostile foreign force” last month and proposed new measures to combat Chinese infiltration and espionage.
Tuesday, at the very moment of maneuvers, Beijing warned Taiwan that “the independence of Taiwan (meant) war”. “And promoting the independence of Taiwan means pushing the inhabitants of Taiwan to a perilous situation of armed conflict,” warned in a statement Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson for the Taiwanese affairs office, in charge of the Chinese Party Party policies towards Taiwan.
The command of the Oriental theater of the Chinese army, which oversees operations in the Taiwan Strait, published on Tuesday an infographic entitled “Tightening the vice”. Ships and fighter planes surrounding the island are mentioned there, accompanied by a warning to the “Taiwanese separatists” that they “ran for their own loss”. Another video shared by the Chinese army represents the Taiwanese president in insect, burning on a blaze.
These maneuvers have been the most important since February, when Taipei said that China had organized “real bullet fire” exercises with planes and warships in an area around 40 nautical miles (74 kilometers) south of the island. The Taiwanese army had responded by sending its own forces to “monitor, alert and respond appropriately”. The Chinese-party state had denounced an “exaggeration” on the part of Taiwan in the face of what he described as a “routine training”.