Beijing launched military maneuvers around Taiwan on Saturday August 19 as a “severe warning”, according to state media, after protesting against a stopover in the United States by the island’s vice-president. William Lai, a frontrunner in next year’s presidential election and a staunch opponent of Chinese claims to the island, returned on Friday from a trip to Paraguay, during which he stopped in New York and San Francisco .
China reacted angrily to the US stops and reiterated that William Lai was a ‘troublemaker’, promising ‘stern warnings about ‘Taiwan independence’ separatists’ collusion with foreign elements and their provocations’ . “The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Eastern Area Command on Saturday launched joint air and sea patrols and navy and air force military drills around the island of Taiwan,” it said. wrote the official New China news agency, quoting army spokesman Shi Yi.
Taiwan said it detected 42 incursions by Chinese military aircraft into its air defense zone “since 9 a.m. (local time),” adding that eight Chinese ships also took part in the maneuvers. Among these incursions, 26 warplanes crossed the center line of the Taiwan Strait, the island’s defense ministry said in a statement.
“Irrational and provocative behavior”
According to New China, these maneuvers are intended to test the ability of Chinese ships and planes “to take control of air and sea spaces” and to fight “in real conditions”. Taiwan strongly condemned “this irrational and provocative behavior”, and promised to send “the appropriate forces to respond to it […] in order to defend the freedom, democracy and sovereignty” of the island.
“The conduct of a military exercise […] under a pretext not only does not contribute to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, but also highlights the (Chinese) militarist mentality and confirms the hegemonic nature of its military expansion,” the Defense Ministry said. of the island in a press release.
Washington had called for calm about the trip of William Lai who, according to the Taiwanese authorities, was only “transiting” through American soil before going to Paraguay to attend the inauguration of President-elect Santiago Peña. But an official from the Chinese Communist Party’s office in charge of Taiwan issues “strongly condemned” the trip on Saturday, calling it “a new provocation” to “strengthen collusion with the United States”, according to New China. .
Beijing opposes any official contact between Western countries and Taiwan, an island it considers one of its provinces.