TAIWAN. Tensions between Taiwan and China are not going down this Wednesday, August 3, 2022. While the Chinese have announced that they are carrying out “military exercises” near the island, the Taiwanese government denounces maneuvers carried out in its territorial waters.
The essential
- This Wednesday, August 3, 2022, tensions are still high between Taiwan and China. The island, autonomous but not independent, is an ally of the United States, while China, an adversary of the Americans, considers that it is an integral part of its territory.
- This renewed tension was caused by the visit to Taiwan of the speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States, Nancy Pelosi, China having taken this as an affront.
- In retaliation, China has announced that it will conduct “military exercises” around Taiwan, while the island denounces maneuvers organized in these territorial waters.
- The latest news live.
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10:53 – Taiwan judges that China will carry out certain military operations in its territorial waters
Will China encroach on Taiwan’s territorial waters for its military exercises? This is what the spokesperson for the Taiwan Ministry of Defense assures. “Some of China’s maneuvers encroach on Taiwan’s territorial waters,” he said, adding that “this is an irrational act aimed at challenging the international order.”
10:41 – Military exercises with shootings organized by China near Taiwan
China has announced that it will carry out “targeted military actions” near Taiwan with, among other things, “long-range live ammunition firing”. These maneuvers are to be carried out in the Taiwan Strait, between the island and China, and will begin on Thursday, it was announced.
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Taiwan is an island located in the China Sea, 180km off the coast of southeastern China, between Hong Kong and Shanghai. The island is also positioned between the Philippines and Japan.
What are the origins of the tensions between Taiwan and China?
Tensions between Taiwan and China are not new. It must be said that the status of the island is ambiguous. Taiwan was historically attached to China, before passing under the Japanese flag from 1895 to 1945. The territory returned to Chinese hands at the end of the Second World War. But the nationalists took refuge in Taiwan when Mao Zedong took power in China and thus formed a government on the island.
In 1949, following the proclamation of the People’s Republic of China, Mao Zedung came to power. His nationalist opponents go into exile on the island of Taiwan and form a government, which cuts all ties with communist China. The latter tries to regain control, in vain. Since then, China no longer has authority over the territory. Quickly, an alliance was forged between Taiwan and the United States.
Relations between Taiwan and China have been strained over the years and even broken between 1995 and 2008, a period during which an anti-secession law was signed, recognizing Taiwan’s autonomy but granting China the right to use “means not -peaceful” if the island were to become independent.
However, since 2016, the coming to power in Taiwan of Tsai Ing-Wen, a pro-independence president, has reignited tensions with China, Xi Jinping wishing to get his hands on Taiwan. However, the United States has always announced that it supports Taiwan against China, thus creating a particularly tense geopolitical climate.
Could war break out between Taiwan and China?
For weeks, Vladimir Putin had, together with Russia, been carrying out major maneuvers on the border with Ukraine, swearing that he had no invasion plan in mind. The rest is known to all… Could a similar scenario occur in Asia? “The likelihood of a war or a serious incident is low,” Bonnie Glaser, director of the Asia program at the American think tank German Marshall Fund, tried to reassure on Twitter. However, various threats or even sanctions could be taken according to her: “the probability that (China) will take a series of military, economic and diplomatic measures to show its strength and its determination is not negligible. It is likely that it will seek to punish Taiwan in multiple ways.”