Behind these exercises, messages sent to the “enemy”, and the fear of a new war. Since this Saturday, China has been simulating “closure” maneuvers on the island of Taiwan, coveted by Beijing. A show of force, in response to the visit of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen to the speaker of the American House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, third man of the American state.
But on Monday, tensions between China and the United States escalated further. Not far from the 11 Chinese warships and 59 aircraft deployed for the occasion in the South China Sea, an American destroyer, the USS Milius, was seen. A “freedom of navigation operation”, announced Washington, which calls on Beijing to be restrained. An “intrusion”, said China, as it claims the waters in question.
So many military means concentrated a few tens of kilometers from the coast and which worry Taiwan. Since the war in Ukraine, the island, the world’s main supplier of semi-conductors, crucial technological equipment, also fears being invaded. On Saturday, President Tsai Ing-wen denounced her neighbor’s “authoritarian expansionism” again. And assured that Taiwan “would continue to work with the United States and other countries […] to defend the values of freedom and democracy”.
China raises the specter of open conflict
Opposite, Beijing believes that this territory, and its 23 million inhabitants, must return to it. Xi Jinping criticizes in particular the military support granted to Taiwan by the United States. He regards Taiwan as a province that it has yet to successfully reunify with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. “Taiwan’s independence and peace and stability in the Strait of Taiwan are mutually exclusive,” said a Chinese foreign affairs spokesman on Monday, raising more and more explicitly the specter of an open conflict.
The current military exercises are taking place with live fire, in the Taiwan Strait near the coast of Fujian (east), the province facing the island, according to local Chinese maritime authorities. Shandong, one of China’s two aircraft carriers, is taking part in the operations, according to Beijing. A staging, which is intended as a “serious warning against the collusion between the separatist forces seeking the independence of Taiwan and the external forces, as well as their provocative activities”, warned a spokesman for the Chinese army, Shi Yi.
At the same time, China is trying to impress with the power of images. In a video posted Monday on the WeChat account of the Army’s Eastern Theater Command, a Chinese pilot said he “arrived near the northern part of the island of Taiwan”, with missiles “locked in place “. In another video, set to dramatic music, an officer’s whistle causes military personnel to run into position, while a mock barrage over Taiwan appears on screen.
For Macron, Europe should not “be a follower” of the United States or China
Sign of the tensions, in recent months, the deployments of Chinese military equipment in Taiwanese waters, as well as in its airspace, have multiplied. The last major deployment around the island took place last August, when China engaged in unprecedented military maneuvers around Taiwan and fired missiles in response to a visit to the island by Democrat Nancy Pelosi, then president of bedroom.
Faced with this situation, France wants to be the guarantor of a third way. In an interview conducted before the maneuvers and published this Sunday in The echoes, Emmanuel Macron stressed the need not to “enter into a block-to-block logic”. Europe must not “be a follower” of the United States or China on Taiwan, he told the French business daily. It is still necessary to have the time to constitute an alternative: “if there is an acceleration of the conflagration of the duopoly, we will not have the time nor the means to finance our strategic autonomy and will become vassals whereas we can be the third pole if we have a few years to build it,” he said.
On a visit to China last week, Emmanuel Macron raised the issue of Taiwan with Chinese President Xi Jinping. “The conversation was dense and frank” on this subject, the Elysée said on Friday. What causes de-escalation? “Anyone who thinks China is going to compromise on Taiwan is delusional,” the Chinese head of state assured European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during a meeting in Beijing. , according to comments reported by Chinese diplomacy.