President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday vowed to defend Taiwan’s freedom while preserving peace in the region, as Beijing began two days of drills around Taiwan as “punishment” for “separatist acts.”
As of 2pm, China had dispatched 15 combat ships, 16 coast guard ships, and 42 fighter jets and early warning aircraft during the first day of its “Joint Sword-2024A” exercises around Taiwan, the Ministry of National Defense told a news conference.
The exercises were launched by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command soon after it made an announcement at 7:45am yesterday, said Major General Huang Wen-chi (黃文?), assistant deputy chief of staff for intelligence.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Of the Chinese coast guard ships, four were detected off the east coast of Taiwan, three were off the southeast coast and nine were in waters near Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, he said.
Twenty-eight of the 42 aircraft entered the nation’s response zone, Huang said.
“Unlike China’s previous military exercises around Taiwan, it did not give precise longitudes and latitudes in which military exercises would be held, nor did it announce no-fly zones,” he said.
Source: CNA
PLA aircraft and vessels did not enter the nation’s contiguous zone, which is 24 nautical miles (44km) off Taiwan proper, Huang said, adding that no live-fire exercises were detected.
Major General Tung Chih-hsing (董冀星), head of the ministry’s joint combat planning department, said that Chief of the General Staff Admiral Mei Chia-shu (梅家樹) presided over a combat readiness guidance meeting and gave two key instructions to the military.
“First, the military was asked to step up its intelligence-gathering and reconnaissance efforts, and elevate response command and control at all levels. Second, all levels of the military must handle the situation using crisis management procedures and maintain normal combat readiness tasks and reconnaissance drills,” Tung said.
Photo: CNA
Major General Lou Woei-jye (樓偉傑), director of the Political Warfare Bureau’s Cultural and Psychological Warfare Section, said that the military has produced short films to counter Chinese cognitive warfare tactics, to be aired on social media and in foreign embassies.
During a visit to a military base in Taoyuan, Lai said he would “stand on the front line ... to jointly defend national security.”
“At this moment the international community is paying a lot of attention to democratic Taiwan,” the president said in a speech that did not directly mention the drills.
Photo: Yasuyoshi Chiba, AFP
“Faced with external challenges and threats, we will continue to defend the values of freedom and democracy, and safeguard peace and stability in the region,” he said.
Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) told a news conference after a Cabinet meeting earlier in the day that the ministry had earlier seen signs showing Beijing would conduct military exercises.
“Our recent observations showed that the way that the Chinese military deployed around the Taiwan Strait pointed to a potential joint military exercise,” Po said, adding that all information is within the scope of the ministry’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operation.
The Coast Guard Administration said that it dispatched seven ships and 16 boats to help dispel Chinese coast guard ships off the north and east coasts.
Presidential Office spokesperson Kuo Ya-hui (郭雅慧) said that there is strong international consensus for maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the Indo-Pacific region.
“However, it is regrettable to see China unilaterally conducting provocative military exercises, as these exercises threaten not only freedom and democracy in Taiwan, but also the status quo of peace and stability in the region,” Kuo said.
“The Presidential Office has held the consistent position that maintaining peace and stability is a shared responsibility and goal for both sides of the Taiwan Strait. Our national security team and all military units have a full grasp of the military situation. In the face of external challenges and threats, we will continue to protect our democracy and the public may rest assured that we are confident and capable of safeguarding our national security,” she added.
China’s military said the drills would serve as “strong punishment for the separatist acts of ‘Taiwan independence’ forces.”
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) adopted language commonly used by China’s propaganda outlets.
“Taiwan independence forces will be left with their heads broken and blood flowing after colliding against the great ... trend of China achieving complete unification,” Wang told reporters.
Additional reporting by AFP
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 —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat