The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) appointment of two generals from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command to its Central Military Commission signals that Beijing is heightening its military preparedness regarding Taiwan, a report said.
A Mainland Affairs Council report published last week said that He Weidong (何衛東) and Miao Hua (苗華), who both served in the Eastern Theater Command, were appointed as vice chairmen in the seven-person commission at last month’s 20th National Congress of the CCP.
At the congress, Chinese President and Chairman of the Central Military Commission Xi Jinping (習近平) vowed to build China into a powerful nation with “Chinese modernization” that underlined national security and science education, the council said in its Third-Quarter Report on the Situation in Mainland China.
Photo: Chung Li-hua, Taipei Times
Xi said he would institute a system to put the heads of the Central Military Commission at the highest command level to lead the country, it said.
Following joint exercises between the PLA Air Force and the Royal Thai Air Force in August, China would seek to normalize military exercises with ASEAN members, it said.
The report said that the CCP added anti-Taiwanese independence language to its congress report, quoting it as saying that “solving Taiwan problems and realizing the complete unification is China’s historical mission,” and that Beijing “will never promise to give up the use of force.”
China would continue to push for more economic cooperation across the Taiwan Strait in the hopes of achieving unification through integration, while continuing military threats and attempts to suppress Taiwan on the international stage, the report said.
The national congress report emphasized the importance of China’s autonomy in foreign affairs and opposition to foreign intervention in its domestic affairs, the council’s report said.
The CCP document also criticized the US’ Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors and Science Act, which it said positioned China as “a competitor that reshapes international order.”
The council report also addressed China’s economic situation.
It said that China’s 3 percent economic growth in the first three quarters of the year, languishing housing market, rising fiscal deficit, record-high consumer price index and high unemployment rate led international institutions to lower their economic growth forecast for the county this year from 3.9 to 2.7 percent.
China’s strict “zero COVID-19” restrictions and electricity rationing have also stirred discontent among its citizens, the report said.
Beijing has asked social media personalities to promote the CCP’s ideology and “the shared consciousness toward the motherland of the Chinese people at home and abroad,” it said.
Regarding Xinjiang, Beijing continues to emphasize economic development and attempts to implement strict social controls, while in Hong Kong and Macau it has reiterated Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula of governance, it said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats